As I write this blog (Monday night, July 18th at 11:00 p.m.), I am sitting in the woods preparing to sleep out under the stars. I am going to try my outdoor skills for three nights. It's not like I am really roughing it in the middle of nowhere, but the feeling is definitely different than going in at night to a nice air-conditioned house, turning on the TV and sipping a cold beverage while sitting in your favorite chair.
Instead, I have chosen to sleep by a fire under the stars with one blanket. My computer screen happens to be filling up with bugs and I am sweating like I am in the shower (I have changed clothes once already) due to the 90 plus degree temperature and nearly 95% humidity.
My senses become very heightened. I hear the crickets, the cicadas, a distant cow bellowing across the lake, and realize just how completely dark it is without the stars in the sky. And every little things that goes bang in the dark gets my attention too.
Doing this crazy kind of things makes me realize how easy we have it. Part of doing this for me is just about setting a goal and conquering it. I like the challenge. I also like thinking about what it must have been like for guys that we read about like David who tended sheep out in the wilderness when he was just a child. I think about when Andrew Jackson was the president and traveled the Natchez Trace from Washington D.C. to New Orleans. I like to think about my granddad living in a tent for a year and a half when he was a child because his father's house burned down. I like to think about Abraham Lincoln traveling the prairie as a young Illinois Senator.
Maybe this sounds crazy to you but there is something about doing this that feels good to me. It makes me appreciate the simple things we have. It makes me feel connected. I feel aware of my surroundings. And it makes me feel like I can be disciplined to set a goal and stick to it.
Now tomorrow I may have another story to tell but tonight I am content. And this truly is a Campfire Chronicle.
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