summer evenings

I'm relaxing back to the quiet of the suburban lifetsyle. I actually still haven't set foot in my fav city this side of the Atlantic, and I'm not sure if I will even this month. It's been different staying in, playing music, cooking a nice dinner, and having a glass of wine with friends. It's nice to not be constantly in motion--life in the city has you always up and down, meeting here and there, trying this place and that one. I to keep things balanced, so it's good that I'm on the chilled half of  the scale for a stint.

Things are going to pick up when school starts (whether I want them to or not) and every night has a million things going on. I'm lucky to soak in the beautiful twilights, sunsets, and evening breezes that summer in New England has to offer while I can.

This coming weekend I'm going camping with a huge group of people from my church, maybe even sixty or more. There's a group campsite up in Vermont on a river with enough space to spread out and even play ultimate frisbee. I've never really been camping, so I'm really REALLY excited. I'm bunking in a big tent with 6 other girls (a couple of them old friends I haven't seen much these years) and we're going to have campfires and big barbecues, volleyball tournaments and star watching. My heart is beating faster in pure anticipation as I write this...My mind is skipping back to the old school church retreats in middle school with Grace Chapel...Camp Berea, with the infamous "pudding slide" Saturday afternoon and the leader's "man-hunt" Saturday night. My favorite part was always when someone would have an impromptu extra time of music and prayer late late Saturday night in the old chapel. Jody would go from song to song, rarely needing to flip her music, creating a perfect sequence of lyrics and rhythms with her voice and guitar. Such a rejuvenating, renewing get-away from business, families, and activities.

Now I'm old enough to be a youth volunteer myself (if only I had time!), and for this camping trip I could be that person with the guitar starting up something wonderful. A chance for people to be quiet and reflect; pour themselves into singing and the stillness that truly comes from hanging out in a forest (with cell phones turned off and laptops left at home). When I think about this coming weekend, I'm definitely looking forward to spending quality time with a lot of people I've been missing since I went to college, but most of all, I'm anxious to have some time for myself; to wake up super early and find a spot where I can play guitar without waking anyone else up. I love having a glorious bit of morning to myself (with some coffee). It's the same feeling I get when I think about driving out to the cottage in Michigan next week---knowing I'll have some peace and calm restored, that I'll be able to process a lot of this year, both thinking things through and writing them down. To serenade the sunset from the boathouse, and greet the dawn in my sleeping bag on the dock. Have a lot of me and God time, in our favorite place, looking out on the lake, and knowing that His timing is perfect, and one day all of my questions will be answered. I always ask a lot of big ones when I'm in Michigan.

To return to camping: Probably what trumps everything, is the anticipation I have to sleep in the basically-new green caterpillar-esque sleeping bag I bought off a Wellesley girl Sophomore year. It is SO warm and snuggly!

-lab