It's Sunday night and I'm getting a later start than usual writing my blog post.
My weekend has been non-stop, running the gamut from a touching funeral on Friday to a night of awesome music and dancing, a meeting for the youth baseball league and a priceless opportunity to spend time with my brother and his family on Saturday, and an all-day wrestling tournament today where I watched my nephew take first place in his weight class.
I'm grateful and inspired and exhausted all at the same time.
And I am so blessed, to be surrounded by a wonderful, amazing, eclectic, sometimes just a teeny bit crazy, group of family and friends. And I wouldn't trade them for the world.
This group of family and friends, at least those of us who are able, has been camping together for many years now. We make it a point to plan a campout at least 2 or 3 times every summer. As we’ve all grown older, more children have been added to the group, and we’ve lost some wonderful family and friends on our journey. The ebb and flow of the experience as it changes over the years is one of the most beautiful things about it. And camping is still one of the things that makes me feel connected with the people I love the most.
When I was young, camping was in tents, no showers or earthy comforts available. All of our food was cooked over the campfire and we really “roughed it.” I guess back then it wasn’t so important to have an air mattress or a comfy bed.
I don’t have a lot of pictures of those early campouts, but a few core memories stick with me that paint pictures in my mind. The smell of the campfire, and the sparks against the dark sky. The dew that collected on the inside of the tent while we slept. The birds chirping in the morning as the hot sun warmed the tent quickly after sunrise. And the fresh air all around, enveloping me like a sweet spring or summer hug.
In my early twenties, we finally got a pop-up camper, and upgraded from a tent. It was so much fun to have a “home” on wheels to bring along with us and an actual bed to sleep in. Cupboards to fill with camping dishes, and a place to be able to go when it rained and stay somewhat dry.
By that time, the rest of my cousins and aunts and uncles that came along with us were starting to upgrade to actual travel trailers. We went through a period of a few years where it seemed like every season someone had a new camper. We all had camper envy and loved stopping at the camper store to tour the new ones and oooh and ahhh over how cool they were.
Funny how once you have a camper with a bed and a toilet, it’s really hard to go back to tenting. I gave up my camper in my divorce and am back to square one again. Fortunately, I have family with extra room in their campers so when we camp, I often find myself bunking with one of them. Thank goodness they like me enough to take me in!
Some of my fondest memories are of nights spent sitting around the campfire with my brothers, aunts, cousins and all of our children. We laugh and share stories, and inevitably, some of us drink too much. Most of the times the conversations are silly and happy, even leaning toward the philosophical as it got later in the night. But, sometimes we find ourselves in heated conversations.
The biggest campfire controversies are typically either about politics or parenting. And, opinionated as we all are, some of the discussions can get pretty heated. One night, during a particularly heated parenting debate, I looked up at the sky, wondering how to change the subject. And then I saw it….
The Big Dipper, shining brightly, directly above us. So, I pointed up to the sky and said, very dramatically, “Hey Look! It’s the Big Dipper!” Immediately, the tension broke, and everyone started laughing. They razzed me about it, in a good natured way, and from that point on, it became one of our inside jokes.
At any given family function now, regardless of whether a campfire is involved, you might hear that phrase, especially when the conversation turns to politics or parenting. The Big Dipper has come to be a symbol for me, in fact, a symbol for all of us, of a way to find peace in our crazy, opinionated family, and sometimes a way to escape from the madness of our world.
Millions of miles away, up in the galaxy, a collection of stars is able to represent that for us. And every time I look up in the sky and see the Big Dipper, bold and beautiful in all it's glory, I am reminded that it's the simple things in life that make all the difference.