I think I could spend years living in the woods, with a couple other people to keep me sane.
I am in love with everything about camping. Community is so important in the middle of the woods. Everyone relies on you to do your share and you rely on everyone else too. Since there is no technology, no schedule, and no where else to be, amazing conversations happen. Also, you learn to be completely comfortable in silence with the people you are with.
Not to mention how much fun it is. Hiking, Canoeing, Rock Climbing, Kayaking, swimming, Boating, Water Skiing/tubing, jumping off huge rocks (practically cliffs) into the refreshing water. Simply cooking dinner is fun because of all the work it takes to make a fire and then try to get something to cook on it.
My partial family and someone practically in the family, and another family went. The father in the other family is a youth pastor and had to write a sermon while we were there. So, on one of our hardcore hikes, we got into a discussion about Church and State. (I think it is really stupid that people talk so much about this because it doesn't seem like this should be our main focus as followers of Jesus Christ...but that is for another time). It was probably pretty comical to see six people walking through the woods single file yelling loud so that the people in front and back could hear about God, Jesus, the Church, and a bit of Government.
My brother came to visit us from his summer job while we were camping and he had to go find a laundromat for his 3 weeks worth of dirty clothes. So we all jumped into a car and headed to the nearest town...Baraboo, Wisconsin. There were two places open on a Saturday at 4 pm in downtown Baraboo. One was the 24-hour laundromat, and the other was a place called English Books or something along those lines. I walk into this used book and immediately fall in love. A beautiful golden retriever named Nellie jumped off of her chair to greet me, and a woman with gray hair and hippie garb greeted me with a friendly hello and an offer for a cup of coffee. What I fell in love with most was the smell of the books. There is just something comforting about the aroma that old papers give off. Walls of books stacked from floor to ceiling that were 2 years old to a couple hundred years old surrounded me. Dim lighting from antique lamps, Old wooden kitchen tables with chess boards and books were in the small corners of my new haven. I spent an hour there, but I could have spent days there. I walked out with two paper bags of books and a cup of Freedom Coffee.
My brother teased about me turning into that old lady some day. I can see that....except the coffee would be free, and there would be beds on a second level for anyone who didn't have a place to sleep. It would be like another world for those people...they would be loved and cared for. And there would be pages and pages of other worlds for the people downstairs.
oh yes...If you have read The Irresistible Revolution or know anything about The Simple Way, you may be interested in knowing that a while ago (a couple weeks or more) there was a fire on their street in Kensington. They need prayer, and money, and help. I think the website is thesimpleway.org
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