A Place Your Heart Can Go Back To

   Every time my husband and I piled the kids into our pick up truck and headed off across the country, it reminded me of a family vacation when I was eight. My father put a camper shell on the back of his pick up truck and built us some bunk beds in the back. My mom sewed up some cushions to go on top. Five kids piled in and set off on a three week adventure to explore the outer reaches of the Northwest. I can't remember many details from the trip but I carry this abundance of joy in my heart whenever I think about it.

    Every time I pitch a campsite,
whether at our family's favorite summer lake or elsewhere, it reminds me of the adventures we had at the lake as a kid. Every summer we'd load up the truck and pitch a tent for the kids, sometimes we went water skiing.  Sometimes we just swam off the rocky shore. Among my favorite memories was sitting around the campfire at night singing to my dad strumming on the guitar. I fondly remember an excursion with my dad hunting for arrowheads on the island in the middle of the lake. I don't know if we found a single arrowhead but the thought of that quest stirs excitement in my heart.
   Every time I make a list I remember my mother sitting at the kitchen table making her lists. She has a collection of spiral books that lists of everything we took with us on every trip we made and what we forgot. I guess my love of list making came from her. When I look up from my camper's table, I remember her dabbing a wet blob of sugar on the camper table so the butterfly that attached itself to me could have a sweet drink. Every time a butterfly lands on me I remember that trip and the joy we shared when that butterfly spent the afternoon with us.
    Sometimes trips and vacations seem like a lot more work than they could possibly be worth. Why, when you have a perfectly good bed at home would you pack up your belongings, pitch a tent out in a remote location, and call it rest? Is two weeks out of the year enough to make it worth it? Why would you haul your children across the country in the back of pick up to see a rock and a stream and a few wild moose when you could spend a Saturday at the zoo and see all kinds of animals up close.
     There is a lot more packed into a suitcase than meets the eye. You bring back more than dirty laundry and broken souvenirs. You fill your soul with the memories that abundant Joy is made from. You give your heart a place to go back to whenever it is overwhelmed and discouraged. You don't have to go on an expensive vacation to build a memory worth going back to. Camping trips can be inexpensive with a pop up tent and a sleeping bag and a bag of groceries right out of your fridge. Whether you go far or go near, go. Make those memories a place your heart can go back to.