Off To Go Camping...

You know what I enjoy about camping...everything. Campfires entice my poetic soul into deep random thoughts of nothing importance. Sunrise, sunrise when you are camping is the greatest, biggest, smile God can share. I love making food from whatever fixings we brought along. At night, looking at God's artwork - trying to name constellations (though this year I have an App. for that, and while it is against my camping code of ethics to use technology camping, I want to learn the constellations) I like not having to take a shower every day - though my fellow campers may feel differently about that. Knowing I am not going to go anywhere for three days - from tent to chair to picnic table - all that fresh air makes me hungry - I eat all the time when I am camping, I like that! When camping you don't really have to talk, but if you want to you can, and the conversations are often about dreams, hopes, and funny stories - I like to laugh. Hot chocolate out of a white dotted, blue metal camping cup - which by the way - use gloves because it gets hot, well, hot chocolate taste really good when you are camping. I don't eat smores; watching the kids make them, and eat them, marshmallow lips and chocolate faces - laughter, you laugh a lot when camping, and since there are no extraneous noises to dilute the purity of your laughter, well that laughter echos across the hills, and through the trees, camping laughter sings. Oh sure you have to pack and set up and some people are bothered by bugs - all of these things are just more camping gifts. The world, each of our worlds, becomes so hectic, and busy, and we are scrambling to get through a day - when you go camping - the day washes over you like refreshing water, it is invigorating. I try to stay up, after everyone else has gone to bed - just stay up, watching the campfire dance, listening to the flames sing, hearing the coyotes howling in the distance - looking at all the stars I can't name, there is this quintessential moment, just as I am so exhausted my eyes will not remain fully open - when the air around me is chilled and the fire warms me - there is this moment - in that moment my heart fills with hope and my soul fills with spirit - in that moment anything is possible! At that moment I know tomorrow is going to bring me exactly what I need from it. Too bad I can't bottle that moment so I can take a whiff of it for all the other moments, but I hang on to it. I believe in that moment. That moment gives me strength to move forward, and onward, and hopefully closer to the place I am meant to be. Oh, I know camping is not for everyone - that's cool - I just hope everyone has an activity, which produces "that moment" so they too can know, without any doubt the power of love, the beauty of Mother Nature, and the existence of God -