The woods are lovely, dark and deep. ~Robert Frost
My daughter experienced her very first camp out last Friday. It was all she could talk about all day, after my husband suggested it. He ended up having to work through the previous weekend unexpectedly so he wanted to do something special and after watching the weather report, it was decided it would have to be Friday night before the weather changed.My husband and I are both experienced campers. He was in boy scouts and I camped out often since I was a teen into my young adulthood, however we have not camped together much at all. We had the equipment but we also had pets for which to care and erratic schedules and then back problems that made sleeping on the ground inadvisable.
My husband picked the place, a primitive campsite on a slight slope, not level but at least mostly flat, in a wilderness woods with lots of wild flora, including poison ivy and poison oak. They set up the tent in a small clearing and cleared a spot to make a campfire. Together we roasted hot dogs and toasted marshmallows. I camped with them for that much. The mosquitoes were relentless, but their attacks diminished in numbers after the fire was going strong. Still, I am a mosquito magnet so I had to wear long sleeves and pants on a slightly cool day near a hot fire. I began to wonder what part of being uncomfortable and not having all those home amenities made camping so appealing when I was younger. Perhaps it was it was battling nature and feeling rewarded with awe inspiring views and discovering even the smallest wonders in God's creation--something every child should have the opportunity to do.
Since we have only two sleeping bags, it was decided that the Princess would use mine and I would retreat to the conveniences of my home. It was difficult for me to leave them out in the wilderness all night like that, but thanks to technology we could talk to each other. The next morning I learned that all went well, but we had not used the tent for ten years so we did not know the waterproofing on the tent has been deteriorating to a very sticky state. Well, it is probably 20 years old, so we need to decide on how to save the tent, which is in otherwise good shape, by removing and reapplying waterproofing or to give up on it.
Anyway, all the next day the Princess talked about their adventure. All the sounds she heard and a wild story about a creature "with no tail" (said with wide eyes and all seriousness) walking around outside and then looking into the tent that Daddy did not see because he was sleeping. No, they promised she did not eat any mushrooms.
You just would never have known how wild our backyard could be!
~ My Lord, You created such wonderful things that bring us delight and cause us to wonder. Thank you for my little backyard wilderness. ~
