Ditch Camp 2.0 : A New Era

I just got back to Tucson after two weeks with my family. This past week, we went to the West Fork of the Black River in the White Mountains for Ditch Camp (no, I didn't make any of that up), our annual family/friend/complete-stranger-at-the-beginning-but-friend-by-the-end camping trip. It's a tradition that started with my great grandmother when my dad was a kid, and has kind of evolved into this amazing 60 person week-long extravaganza. It has been a huge part of my summers for as long as I can remember, and there are certain things about it which make it one of my favorite weeks of the year. Things like...

Lifelong friends

Darling children

Cooking with wine (and sometimes putting it in the food)

Getting dirty and having mom say, "Just wipe it on your pants"

Time with God in the midst of His creation

Getting up early with Mom

Okay, maybe not so much the "getting up early"

Singing around the campfire

The Music Master

And, those things that are too hard (or even impossible) to catch on camera. Those things like: the deep philosophical discussions late at night, being able to read a whole book in one week, connecting on a heart-level with multiple people multiple times a day, and listening to the deep sound of my father's voice early in the morning as he starts the fire and I lay warm in my tent. It's an incredible thing, how the sense of comfort from these things can plumb the very depths of my heart.

Yet, I felt a sense of sadness that the people with whom I've lived my life over the past seven years in Tucson weren't around to experience this thing which is such a part of me. It's like I have these two worlds, one in Gilbert with my family and these friends who have watched me grow up and one in Tucson with a different family and different friends who have known me as an adult. I would love for the worlds to intersect - in some ways they certainly do, but this week I was missing my team and others who have walked this recent stage of life with me. I was wishing they could be at Ditch Camp, too. And, in one small way, they were...

My dad is pretty amazing. He's pretty amazing for a lot of reasons, but one amazing thing he did this week was set up a solar-powered satellite dish which gave us wireless Internet access in the middle of the woods.Welcome to Ditch Camp 2.0, folks.

And, to finish this post, I will say to the camp directors, "A triumph, my dears, a triumph!"