Greetings from Summer Camp!

Jun 18

We’ve been laying low in central Minnesota for the last couple of weeks, playing on the lake and enjoying family time. I can’t believe how fast the time is going. We could easily stay here for the entire summer, but there are other beautiful places calling our name, so the plan is to start heading west next week.

Remember at the beginning of this blog when I said we were just going to relax and roll with life, make no decisions, blah blah blah… ?

Yeah.

Turns out, that’s hard.

I would characterize myself as a pretty bold decision-maker. I have relied heavily on gut instinct and making quick decisions based on the resounding YES or NO I feel in my body. It has served me extremely well, and I honestly can’t think of a decision made in this way that I look back on with regret. (I also don’t really believe in regret; I have learned invaluable lessons from every experience that, on the surface, “didn’t go my way”).

It’s when the decisions are slooooowwwww, and too much time sneaks its way in that I run into trouble.

That’s when the over-thinking starts.

And the gathering of opinions.

And the second-guessing.

And all of the LOGIC starts to work itself around in my brain.

And I run ALL of the scenarios, ad infinitum.

It’s exhausting.

Right now, I have three separate puzzles waging wars in my brain:

COVID is a sticky wicket. We were hoping that by the time we were ready to leave Minnesota, we would have a clearer picture of what is open, places we could hang out and avoid crowds, etc. We don’t have an exact plan and are having trouble making reservations because,
a) a lot of campgrounds are still closed, and
b) the ones that are open are overrun with people like us desperate to social distance their way into nature.
I would love to just hit the open road and fly by the seat of our pants, but finding places to park this 38 foot beast is not a walk in the park. We learned that the hard way on the drive up north. RV camping in the summer is not for the whimsical and care-free, it takes some serious planning and precision. I had a few “must-see” stops on my list for this summer, and those places specifically are proving nearly impossible to plan. Disappointing after all the work and expense that has gone into making all of this happen, but I’m trying to see the bigger picture and let the summer unfold as it will.
School. SCHOOL. SCHOOOOOOOOL. <insert brain explosion here>
School in Nevada restarts on August 10th. AUGUST 10th!
That only gives us 6 more weeks of traveling, which may seem like a long time, but it goes so fast. We’ve already been gone for a month and it feels like we still have so much to do/see.
But here’s my conundrum, ARE WE EVEN GOING BACK TO SCHOOL?! I know, that’s everyone’s conundrum. I totally get that we’re not alone here. My problem is this, other than school, we have absolutely no reason to rush back to Nevada. And if we’re going to be distance learning, we can do that from anywhere. I would love to take our time, find the campgrounds that are open and spend longer amounts of time in each place, rather than rushing to get back. And then the dreaded, what if we do rush to get back, only to find that the schools switch to distance learning at the last second and we missed out on the opportunity to extend our trip?!
Gah! My brain can’t handle it.
We are currently living on our own little island up in the woods, and I feel so far removed from all of the hard work that is being done around racial inequity in our country (and the world). The very fact that I have the option of existing in this bubble, and immunity to what is happening outside of it, is the exact definition of White Privilege. Working on figuring out how to show up for the BIPOC community when showing up physically isn’t an option. So far it is listening and learning with all my might.

Last week I felt like we had a solid plan in place, because it looked like our schools were on track to re-open on campus. The plan was to squeeze every drop of adventure out of six weeks that we can, then head home for the start of school. Take this time to educate myself and find a local organization to support, then hit the ground running once we get home.

Nevada has had pretty low COVID case numbers since the beginning and it looked like everything was going pretty smoothly. But over the past week it seems like that is changing by the minute, and now who the hell knows?

None of us, that’s who.

So, we’re just going to keep floating around in our little RV bubble for the foreseeable future, hanging out with the trees and lakes and rivers and trust that we’re wandering ourselves in the right direction.

The last few months I have really been working on the idea of Surrender. And if this experience isn’t a true test of that, I don’t know what is.

I have never described myself as Type A, but I’m definitely a do-er. A “get it done-er.” Is that a thing?

I’m an Enneagram Type 8 (with a strong 7 wing), if that helps anyone out.

I push and I make things happen.

I get shit DONE.

But sometimes the pushing is too much (for me and everyone around me), and to live truly in alignment it is better for me to sit back and let things flow (8 goes to a healthy 2 when in alignment, for all of my Enneagram nerds out there;).

So I’m working on that. I’M WORKING ON IT, OK?!

Seriously though, it’s a struggle, but a beautiful one.

I am learning so much about myself;

about how I relate to others (my family and the world in general),

about the kind of life I want to live,

about how best to lovingly show up and be of service,

about what it means to be peaceful and present,

about the inner calm that comes along with BEING rather than DOING.

The plan is to continue to find stillness every day.

To connect to myself.

To connect with the people around me.

To connect with the exquisite beauty of nature.