Adventure

This is the fifth in a series highlighting the simple and the sacred.

It all started with a curling iron. We were newly married, and funds were tight. I wanted to go away and Bruce agreed. We either could have a few days at a fancy place or go camping. I said I’d go camping if he could get me a curling iron that worked with no plug. 

A few weeks later, he came home brandishing a propane one…and that was the start of our camping adventures. 

Camping can be dirty, messy and inconvenient. Especially when our kids came along and I found myself nursing in the night, working on potty training, and bathing kids in small bins while camping in a tent. Yet it’s been a life-long, ongoing adventure. We’ve taken short trips to one place, and long trips where we stopped in many places. Our gear has evolved over the years, but we’ve never lost our love of camping.

I realize that some of the things we’ve done while on camping trips could have been done at home. But just because we can them at home, doesn’t mean we should. We’ve discovered that it’s always worthwhile to take the time to break away from the routine. To enjoy the simple pleasures of discovery as we journey to new places and experience new things. 

Today I want to tell you about a few of the unexpected simple pleasures from our camping trips.

Refugio State Park, California

Many times as our kids were growing up, we camped at Refugio State Park in California. On one trip, the weather was just perfect for kite-flying. I’ve never forgotten what fun we all had watching Bruce and Matthew make that kite dance in the sky.

Buffalo Pass Ranch, Minnesota

After camping across the country, we stopped in Minnesota to visit some family. One day, my brother and sister-in-law took us to a buffalo farm owned by some friends. 

As we sat in the owners’ truck in the field, one of the buffalo came up and stuck his head in the window. He had been an orphan and so the owner’s family let him stay inside early in his life and he’d never forgotten. He was huge…yet acted like a little puppy! 

The owner also revved his car motor to startle the herd, so we could hear the haunting and powerful sound of the buffalo making a small stampede as they ran away. 

Lake Louise, Canada

We stopped on the way to a campground at Lake Louise in Canada; the view of the glacier was breathtaking. As we wandered outside near the chateau, a man dressed in Lederhosen stepped up to an instrument I had never seen – an alpenhorn.

It's a conical Swiss musical wooden instrument, bent like a cow horn at the end, about 11 feet long, and weighing about 17 pounds. He began playing Amazing Grace, as quiet descended on the crowd. The sound echoed through the air, and we stood, listening and gazing at the snow-capped mountains on the glacier across the lake.

Honeyman State Park, OR

One of our favorite activities is to kayak. Bruce and I share a two-seat kayak and sometimes we just drift or slowly paddle, exploring inlets. On this particular trip, I remember the profound sense of silence as we quietly moved through the water. Then all of sudden, Bruce started singing a worship song, and I joined in. We listened to our voices echoing through the woods surrounding the lake and it was a serene and majestic moment.

These experiences happened during camping trips, but flying a kite, seeing animals, listening to a beautiful instrument and being on the water can happen in many places, and often not that far from home. Simple pleasures can happen wherever we find ourselves. 

Perhaps what these experiences of mine have in common, though, is intentionality. We planned time away, and then we became open to whatever God might bring into our lives to bless us…to refresh us…to encourage us.

I invite you to take a look at your calendar. Maybe there’s a moment, a half-day, a little time you can schedule as “off-limits” to your routine and tasks. Give yourself time to consider what kinds of things you like to do, and then ask God to meet you in that experience. 

That is the beauty of simple moments.