ForeverWandering.com

Another camp ending has come and gone, and even though the season doesn’t officially end until next weekend with the end of two programs I am in one of my conflicted bittersweet moods.

This summer has been one of the toughest of both my personal and professional lives. It has been composed of being away from my wife and kids for a month, the death of a good friend from camp, and a couple of other things that I’d rather not mention here yet. Add a heaping of self-doubt and I’ve got myself a…difficult summer.

But that’s not to say that the season didn’t have its good points. As always, the time I got to spend with campers and staff was awesome. It was also one of the best summers I’ve had as far as quality and dedication of staff.

I compare this summer to a really good movie. Like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is a great series filled with joy, heartache, laughter, sadness, action, and rest. And while it seems that, at times, that you never want it to end there are times that you wish it could be over. Inevitably, however, no matter what you wish for — it will end. It is a sad thing for the end to come but you find solace in the fact that it was a happy ending.

That is where I am now. The season is coming to an end and there is nothing I can do to change that. As with a couple of other things connected to that — I am a conflicted man (and probably will be for the near future). I am watching the ship sail out and wondering what adventures await me as I stand on shore. I know they shall be grand adventures, but I sometimes wonder what the people on that ship will experience.

So the current adventure is over. After watching the ship sail into the west and the sunset, I find myself wiping away the tears of sadness, turning around and walking to the new sunrise that I know will be approaching after a while. It just means a bit of traveling and wandering through the nighttime.

ad astra per aspera — “a rough road leads to the stars”
“not all who wander are lost” — J.R.R Tolkien

It reached 51 degrees today…nice, sunny, and an almost-warm kind of feeling.  It was wonderful!

And yes, I do realize that not more than a month ago I was cheering on the snow as it fell.

But it’s 14 days until spring — and that realization plus the nice weather now after so many days of…of…not niceness — has made me want to cheer on the sun, the spring, and the summer!

Bring it on!

When I do get the chance to take a drive — a REAL drive (long, aimless, not your normal “Sunday drive”) — I often think about what the land would look like without all the buildings, roads, utility poles…you get the picture. Without the touch of people upon it.

Today was one of those days, of course. It was a wonderful 10 hours of driving. I saw Vasquez Rocks first (see post before this one) and the just drove north into the mountains. After drinking in the mountains I drove through a huge valley for a while before hitting mountains again and heading back to L.A. All in all an outstanding day – even had a chance to see a movie!

Now…if I can just get some solid sleep on my red-eye flight, I’ll be in great shape for heading straight vack to work when I land!