raising you as a tree

I like camping, but I rarely get to actually do it.  Something about it has always drawn me closer.  The feel of outdoors, or maybe just the illusion that you’re actually getting away from everything and everyone back at home, wherever that is at the time.  When I actually DO get the chance, it’s usually more like faux-camping - I stay in a cabin, with restrooms, showers, and a McDonalds in close proximity.  I’ve never really spent a few days in the woods with nothing more to live off of, than the ground. What I do is really more like sleeping with more trees around you than normal.

 I just got back from a camping trip a few days ago with a few of my friends.  Being in the outdoors was soothing, to say the least.  Like smelling hot chocolate on a cold winter day, or jumping into a cold pool for the first time all summer.  It didn’t feel new, but it did feel different - an extreme departure from the metal buildings and concrete highways from home.  But admittedly, part of that comes not only from checking your worries at the door, but from being around some really great people.

I was around some really great people those few days.  Sure, there were a few scuffles, as is bound to happen any time you put more than one person together - but it was nice, for the most part.  It felt effortless, in the same way that listening to music does a lot of the time - you put the headphones on and you just sit back and consume it. I went camping and just consumed the experience.  Even though it was so easy, it was also weird - weird to go from being around people you just met who know you so well to people you don’t know you at all, that you’ve known your entire life.