September Reset with Skills Worth Learning in Uncertain Times

September, similarly to January, comes as a month of reset. Re-entering work routine after the summer holidays, returning to school and preparing for an upcoming season of theatre, concerts and other cultural programmes, while some also get back to their team sports, gym schedules and other activities.

Considering September as a sort of "New Year", returning to our routines can also be a good time to set some new habits and routines, and pick up some old ones previously discarded. Beyond the traditional "exercising more, eating healthier or reading more good literature", I have been thinking about a slightly different goal: becoming a little more self-sufficient in everyday life.

Several factors have triggered this thought, particularly how present geopolitical tensions, wars, natural disasters and climate concerns have become, both, through the amount of information surrounding them and, in some cases, their geographical proximity, although, on a larger scale, I know none of this is entirely new.

'What if?'

I can admit that there has hardly been a week in the past few years when I have not used a navigation app. Being a millennial myself, I can still remember my dad taking the family on holidays, driving thousands of kilometres while relying only on printed maps which, when unfolded, could almost cover the entire windscreen of our car. The real struggle was not understanding the map, but encountering roadworks that were nowhere to be found on our already two-year-outdated (if not more) map.

Those were also the days when my grandmother would happily stitch holes in my socks and trousers, figuring out which piece of another fabric would match "fashionably" enough to work as a patch, not because we couldn't afford new socks, but because it was just normal. Today, replacing them would probably be my first choice..

The thought is not really about preparing for the worst. It is more of a "what if?" What if, for whatever reason, ordinary life was suddenly put on pause, with electricity, transport, shops or some of the services we rely on becoming temporarily unavailable? The experience of what we all went through relatively recently during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21 has instilled in us a different sense of alertness, or preparedness, in case something (else) could interrupt our daily lives.

For many people around the world, questions like these are not even hypothetical, as wars, displacement and natural disasters have already destroyed the ordinary lives they once knew. Becoming more practically independent will not make us fully understand those experiences, but it may help us empathise with those whose everyday lives have been disrupted and recognise how much we take for granted in our own lives.

In Latvia, where I am coming from, authorities have encouraged residents to prepare a 72-hour, ready-to-go emergency backpack at home, largely against the broader backdrop of Russia's war against Ukraine and recent drone incidents in the Baltic region.

Interestingly, Luxembourg is asking its residents to think along similar lines. As part of the "Lëtz prepare!" initiative, the authorities are encouraging households to prepare for 72 hours of self-sufficiency and to know how to respond in an emergency.

Practical skills

Thankfully, some practical skills I picked up growing up or during my years of guiding in the wilderness. In a prolonged crisis, I would probably rank understanding what to wear even higher than knowing how to repair it. Cotton, for example, is one of the worst materials in cold conditions as it absorbs moisture and loses much of its insulation when wet.

Still, knitting, sewing or simply repairing clothes can be useful beyond necessity. Whenever I have done it, I have found the process very meditative.

Even higher on my list would be knowing how to cook from basic ingredients - even better if some are home-grown. My current home does not exactly allow for a potato field, but before the summer I planted tomatoes and a couple of days ago harvested exactly two small, hardly edible tomato berries. Luckily, herbs such as basil, parsley and mint have proven much more cooperative. Others, though, have had better harvests than I have experienced; maybe experimenting and experiencing over a few years would improve my understanding..

Then there is basic first aid, which does not require any major crisis to become useful. In an everyday accident, knowing what to do in the first few minutes before professional help arrives can matter enormously.

'Building a village'

Self-sufficiency does not have to mean doing everything ourselves. Historically and practically, people survive by sharing skills. While one is growing something, somebody else repairs, and another person knows first aid and so on.

For our ancestors, being part of a group meant surviving. Being left outside the group could mean losing access to food, protection and help. Researchers have even described such exclusion as a possible death sentence.

"Building a village" does not mean physically building one, of course. It simply means finding a circle of people around us with whom we can share knowledge and skills, and being able to ask for or offer help when needed.

The City of Luxembourg's Repair Cafés offer a good example of this. Volunteers there help people fix everything from clothes and bicycles to household appliances, while sharing their knowledge with those willing to learn. Beyond giving objects another life, the community project also creates a place for people to meet, exchange skills and help one another.

A similar approach can be seen at SICA’s new resource centre in Kehlen, which combines waste collection with opportunities to give reusable items a second life. 

September - in practice

I will most probably start with small changes in everyday habits: choosing clothes made from materials that last longer and, whenever I feel like throwing something old away, asking myself twice whether it could still be fixed.

For those, leaning to more structured group activities, Luxembourg offers plenty of possibilities, with proper adult education courses organising sewing, cooking, woodworking, mechanics, masonry and welding among others workshops. There are also initiatives for learning how to repair clothes and household items, work with tools or harvest seeds.