Thoughts

I drove to town alone today. In the car I realized that this was probably the first time I had been alone since the beginning of the summer. I was not longing for time alone, but it was a good chance to daze in and out of thought. When imagining my summer up here, I pictured a lot of time to reflect; a time to think about what’s important in life; a time to soak up the peaceful surroundings and appreciate its beauty (and maybe even time to come up with a good dissertation topic!). Well, as many of you I’m sure could attest to, planning for revelations or epiphanies about the meaning of life does not always work. At least, that is, not as we imagine it.

The reason time alone is rare up here is because we work with such a great staff. The opportunities are most definitely here to seek solitude and to access incredible places in nature, but what good are these places when you know you are missing out on badminton or a campfire? These events may sound trivial or silly, but I think my time up here really illustrates the great value of relationships. Spending time in a beautiful location is amazing and does definitely do something great for the soul, but speaking for myself, it can only go so far. Even if I intentionally sought out solitude, I doubt that it would have the same centering effect, if I knew that I was missing out on spending time with people. I was struck by this thought today. For all that we do to seek out natural beauty, the value of simple togetherness…interaction…..connection still is at the base of our lives (regardless of how strikingly beautiful your surroundings may be). On the flip side of this reality then, does it really matter if you are not in a place of beauty, but are in good company? I think about this often when people have a hard time imagining living in particular towns or states (including myself). But really, isn’t that the great thing about relationships? When you are around good people, the surroundings matter very little. Life usually ends up revolving around the people you know no matter where you live. So while it does sadden me a little bit that I haven’t had this deep, reflective time up here, it would sadden me much more to miss out on spending time with the friends we’ve made here.

So maybe what I needed wasn’t time to think, but time to NOT think. Maybe peace and restfulness can come from either reflection or just living in the moment. For now, though, I have been enjoying myself too much to do much deep thinking. I guess that sounds like a good way to live.

-Kirsten

P.S. The Clearwater Blog is a good way to get a sense of the fun staff up here- everyone blogs about their trips and the random stuff going on around here. www.clearwateroutfitters.com