Taking on the Wilderness
Nature has the power to restore
When the idea for Family Camp 2016 was first presented, I couldn’t put into words what sounded appealing about taking 16 children on a wilderness weekend, but nonetheless, the Jordan family was in.
We packed up on Friday, along with the five other families planning to attend, and met at Camp Caney in time for dinner. Caney is located just north of Minden. Its cabins sit on the edge of Caney Lake, nestled in the pine forest, and unlike most camp facilities, these beds have Tempur- Pedic Memory Foam mattresses. A slice of heaven, to say the least.
For the past several months, our weekends had consisted of a series of errands, birthday parties and Ty’s Friday nights at the duck camp to meet his early Saturday hunting agenda and my Friday nights with On-The-Go Delivery and Bravo. It was nice to escape for a change. To leave the errands, housework and “Real Housewives” behind to focus time on each other and have fun as a family.
That Friday evening was everything you’d expect from a camping experience. A smoky campfire circled by curious little boys who kept the fire stoked and searing hot, and under their precise evaluation, it could always benefit from having another log thrown on.
Camping’s signature dessert, the s’more, was served for dessert. The hot, gooey marshmallow layered with Hersey’s chocolate between two graham crackers ranks right up there with the Tempur- Pedic Memory Foam mattresses.
This was Tilly’s first s’more. It was a love affair between a girl and gooey chocolate as Tilly sat in my lap by the campfire quietly devouring her dessert – a 30-minute task of precision for my 3-yearold’s particular personality.
Our family shared a cabin with another family of five. Pack-n-plays were popped up for the littlest ones, sleeping bags were unrolled, and beds were made for the rest of our crew. And although my friend said her youngest child cried off and on throughout the evening, I heard none of it (those mattresses, y’all).
I woke up Saturday morning to sweet little Finn, the 1-year-old belonging to our bunkmates, standing by my bed and looking at me curiously. I slept so hard that it took me a moment to realize what was happening and how Finn had gotten to my bedside at 7 a.m. From his facial expression, I guess Finn was wondering something very similar. As my eyes opened, Finn took off to return to his side of the cabin.
It was a good start to my day. I felt refreshed already, but as we headed to the rec hall to break bread with friends, the fellowship is what was truly nourishing. We sipped on coffee, enjoyed sausage patties and scrambled eggs and biscuits smothered in jelly. We got to catch up and laugh, and our children got to run wild inside, playing ball and choreographed dance routines.
I thought how rare it was for my children to get to freely explore. We live in a world of caution. They generally play outside at home under my watchful eye, but at Caney, we adopted a more free-range style of parenting. Remove some of the elements and circumstances of our world today, and parenting naturally became a little easier.
After breakfast, Ty took Tilly to the camp’s pier for daddy/daughter fishing (another first for Tilly) while I loaded Grady in the stroller for a walk along the road that surrounded the lake. As we set off on our walk, Grady soon fell asleep from the lulling motion of the stroller. I found myself enjoying the silence and feeling refreshed by nature.
We walked along the winding road for nearly an hour, listening to the wind blow through the tree branches and the leaves rustle to the ground, and feeling the crisp, cool air fill my lungs. I could hear laughter in the distance, undoubtedly coming from the pier, where upon my return I discovered had turned into the dad’s sling-shotting rocks at stumps in the water and the children running back and forth from the bank of the lake to handdeliver rocks to their dads.
I smiled.
I hadn’t realized until now how tired I had been. Not in a sleepy way that a good night’s rest can cure but deep in my soul. This escape to nature, this fellowship with friends, this time with my family was restoring a piece of me that I didn’t even know felt tired and empty.
Each day a co-worker of mine sends me his daily devotional reading. Like myself, my co-worker has endured difficulty in recent months, and we’ve found fellowship in understanding each other’s burdens. Sometimes I read the devotions, and some days I find myself too busy, and they get lost in the shuffle.
But this day, I found the time and read these words sent to me from the book “Jesus Calling” “Come to me and rest. I am all around you, to bless and restore. Breathe Me in with each breath. The way just ahead of you is very steep. Slow down and cling tightly to My hand.”
Come to me. Rest. Breathe Me In. Slow down. Cling tightly. In one short paragraph were the instructions that I sensed in my soul – escape every once in a while and take Me in.
By the end of the weekend, I was exhausted. But it was nothing a good night’s sleep couldn’t remedy.
What I found at Caney was a reconnection to not only the people I love but to my life itself.
Stephanie Jordan is a local journalist, marketer and blogger.
Her blog can be found at www.stephanienetherton.blogspot.com, and she can be contacted at stephanienetjordan@gmail.com.
