Reflections on Closing Camp

I spent last week closing camp and, of course, doing a bit of fishing. I invited one of my buddies to join me, and we combed the waters of Spednic Lake with Andy for salmon and bass. The fishing gods were not responding, but we basked in the warm sun reflecting off the water. The cloudless skies were a hard blue, and there was very little wind to disturb my back cast. No lost flies on this trip.

Back on shore by midday, with a few catches, Andy prepared the fire for lunch and his cowboy coffee, while my friend and I delved into a discussion about nature. He is a student of the bible—both Old and New Testament—a subject about which I have very little insight. I posed the question to him: Do the scriptures teach us about the importance of nature and the wilderness? His answer, in essence, was that being out in nature, unplugged and detached, deliberately away from life’s comforts, creates an environment where one can think free from distraction. In the wilderness, you are better able to contemplate God, pray, humble yourself, and be grateful. He added that it was C.S. Lewis, the great Christian apologist, who said, “It is better for one to think of all the things he has rather than all the things he doesn’t.”

Reflecting on religious scriptures and how nature can set us free to contemplate God is usually an opportunity I indulge in during the Jewish High Holidays. Yet my friend, lying in the tall grass at the edge of the woods, looking up towards the sky, touched on a universal lesson of being grateful for what we have.

I often refer to the current political environment as “uneven,” and some of my friends have asked me what I mean by this. It is my sense that so much of everyday life has gone off the runway –uneven terrain. Change is good, but sometimes the parameters have been shaken by the lack of a foundation on which to base a position. Getting back to nature provides grounding and perspective, opening up the possibility of hope for the future.

On the way back to camp from the lake, my friend and I noticed several churches on Route 1 between Forest City and Danforth. These houses of worship are of many denominations: Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Christian Evangelist –all gathering places for locals to participate with their neighbors in reflecting on God’s Word and to humble themselves and feel gratitude for the gifts they have.

I closed camp for the season, grateful and happy that I could share it with my friend, who opened my eyes to new ways to see and appreciate the value of the nature around us.