Learning to Appreciate Small Pleasures

One learning I was reminded of by the time in the Boundary Waters was how important simple pleasures can be toward bringing comfort to us in our daily lives. Dealing with the basics of living in the wilderness is so difficult that you become much more aware of the simple things which can bring true pleasure and joy to life. For instance:

1. It was a great thing when I finally cleaned off the lenses of my glasses with soap and water in the lake rather than using the soft lens cloth I was carrying, which only worked to a certain extent in removing the grease and grime of daily life. Having a clean pair of glasses I realized was almost a greater joy than having clean skin or hair. To have my glasses clean and have clear vision again - a true joy!

2. When you are truly hungry and physically spent almost anything tastes delicious - even Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches (which I ate for three lunches, and which I could not even begin to remember when I last had a PB & J sandwich before this). Even freeze dried fruit, which actually tastes sort of like Styrofoam, with a little bit of flavor added.

3. Being able to spend a lazy afternoon with my son, laying on the rocks by the shore of a beautiful lake, gazing up at the clouds floating by, changing shapes as they go, watching what they turn into and transform into and just chat with him about whatever comes to mind. A true Sabbath experience.

4. And the hot shower when you emerge from the wilderness that the Outfitters provides. This is by far the best shower, most luxurious feeling, you can have, after spending 6 days in the woods with only cold lake water to provide bathing options for you and even then tempered by the need to almost immediately recover your body with DEET mosquito repellent. Every time I have ended one of these trips I have luxuriated in the hot shower for at least 30 minutes (I know, probably very wasteful of water to all my eco-friendly, green friends), totally scrubbing my body with soap twice and shampooing my hair with large quantities of shampoo and conditioner. It is a true taste of heaven!

5. The taste of Dairy Queen hot dogs and Blizzards for a first meal after eating freeze dried food for a week. There is a Dairy Queen in the Two Harbors, the first sizable town we drive through after leaving the wilderness and heading south along the northern shore of Lake Superior. We stopped there five years ago for our first meal when I first took Paul and Rebekah on one of these trips with me and Paul and I stopped again this time. I would never, ever, order a Dairy Queen hot dog any other time or place, but at this moment after emerging from the wilderness it tastes divine.

The dilemma is how to be aware of these simple pleasures upon returning to the hustle and bustle and daily grind of regular life. I am sure that if I could be more aware of life at this level my life would be much richer and less stressed. I will have to keep meditating on this truth during the sabbatical.

Hanging the Pack

One of the tasks you must deal with at each campsite is identifying one or two trees which you can use to hang your food pack. This must be done to protect it primarily from black bears, who are voracious scavengers, but also from other critters such as chipmunks and squirrels. This is always a difficult chore because you must hang the pack at least 10 feet off the ground and at least 6 feet from any tree. The area is loaded with trees, but not many of them are good bear trees. The outfitter provides you with two ropes, one with a metal pulley attached to one end, which you can use for this project. Paul and I were able to hang our pack the first night by having him climb on my shoulders against one tree to wrap the rope around a high branch and the trunk and then eventually through a stick with the other rope attached over another tree, high enough so we could get the pack elevated. It was more than 6 feet from either tree, but we not quite 10 feet off the ground. Paul, who is 6 feet could just touch the bottom the pack with his fingers stretched high, so it was probably about 8-9 feet high. But it worked and we had no problems that night. The next campsite was on an island about 100 yards from shore. The water was very shallow between the island and the shore. Nevertheless, knowing a bear could probably get over to the island if it really wanted to, we did not hang our food the three nights we were on this campsite. We took this risk primarily because we absolutely could not find a decent tree to use. There were trees, but either they did not have large branches, or they were way back from the campsite area in the woods. So we closed everything up tightly, covered it with the tarp, and prayed. Again, we have no problems. The final campsite we did find a pretty good tree to use by throwing the pulley over a thick branch, lowering it to the ground and running the other rope through the pulley and then tying both ropes off to another tree. This time the pack was much higher than 10 feet. But, it was also right up against a lower branch of that tree that looked rather dead and I was trusting it would not hold the weight of a bear. Again, we had no problems. This rather lengthy post illustrates the amount of concern this chore elicits in me. The above pictures illustrate the two different times we got the pack hung.

Mosquitoes!!!!

There is another piece of the wildlife in the Boundary Waters which I did not mention last post. MOSQUITOES!!!! They are extremely numerous in the wilderness and you must find creative ways to deal with them or they can ruin a trip. Since we booked the upgraded outfitting package this time they gave us mosquito netting we could wear on our heads (The picture shows Paul wearing his netting as a "hoody" so it was at the ready and he could flip it over to cover his face whenever necessary.) This was a tremendous asset. The nets were especially handy on the portages, for this is one of the worst areas for mosquitoes. Especially when carrying a canoe over your head. It becomes like a long, hollow hat and the mosquitoes become trapped in the hull with you. The other handy place for this netting was going to the latrine (which is lovingly depicted in the other picture), another location where the mosquitoes congregate, waiting for fresh meat (or I guess it is really the blood they are after.) The mosquitoes were especially bad this year since they have had such a wet spring and early summer. The blessing to that is the water levels are high which sometimes means shorter portages because you can paddle up some of the beaver creeks and ponds. It also means there is no fire ban so you can have a wood fire, although we only did that twice. (More about that later.) There are two refuges from the mosquitoes: out on the water for they do not fly out there, unless they have attached themselves to you when you push off from the land. But those few mosquitoes you eventually kill or the breeze on the lake blows them away. The other refuge is in the tent. So, besides applying massive qualities of DEET mosquito repellent, far beyond what the manufacturer's label recommends, we often stayed out on the water in our canoe, or we went to the tent, often turning in before daylight was completely erased from the sky. (At this northern latitude during the summer the sun rises about 5:30 a.m. and does not set until about 9:30 p.m. We did stay up late enough to see some stars on one of the evenings and I saw the millions of stars that appear when the night is darkest on one of my late night latrine trips. It was disappointing that we did not get to see the Northern Lights, the Aurora Borealis. We were especially hoping for them on July 4th to be our fireworks show.

Wildlife in the Boundary Waters

It has been a few days since I last posted. We have been visiting my family (my Dad and one brother and one sister with her little boy) since landing in St. Louis on Sunday, July 13. I will share reflections on this part of the trip in a later post. With this post I want to share the wonderful wildlife Paul and I encountered in the Boundary Waters. This was, without a doubt, the most richly blessed trip I have ever made to this wilderness area in terms of the variety and amount of wildlife I observed. The list included:
2 white-tailed deer
4 Bald Eagles, one up close
1 Golden Eagle, very close (right above our campsite in a tree)
Many loons, some in flight
Vultures
Crows
numerous song birds
Canadian Jays
3 Beaver
4 - 7 otter
Several wood ducks
Several sea gulls
A leech
A painted turtle laying eggs on one of our campsites
several frogs
several different kinds of butterflies
Dragonflies
1 Pine Marten
squirrels
1 Snake
1 Moose!

I have seen most of these things before on trips to the Boundary Waters, but I cannot recall ever seeing this much variety and this many critters all in one trip. I can certainly enjoy the wilderness without seeing many of these animals, but they truly add to the joy and excitement and wonder of the trip. If you would like to see some photos of some of the wildlife, click on this link to go to my gallery. http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6d2p4u6.4zlns29e&x=0&y=rcj95a&localeid=en_US

Wilderness Camping Brings Life Down to Basics

It was most definitely the best decision I made to begin my Sabbatical with 6 days in a wilderness setting where I was literally disconnected from the rest of the world. It helped me to begin making the shift from working pastor to renewing pastor and I am confident it helped the Church to make the shift from relying on me to trusting their own resources and capabilities. In the woods life is reduced to its most basic functions. You spend your time preparing your meals, eating, sleeping, bringing water from the middle of the lake (where is more pure) to your campsite, taking care of your campsite, moving camp -- in otherwords, you basically spend your time taking care of yourself at the level of very basic needs , along with taking care of those immediately with you. There is not time to strive after things, possessions -- not much you could do with them if you had them anyway. There is just basic life, taking care of yourself and those you love. Which is really all life is about and all it really needs to be about. We have laid so many layers of expectations over life in civilization that at times we really lose the essence of life and what is most important at its core. Taking care of our basic needs and taking care of those we love. That is what Jesus called us to remember: Love God and love our neighbor as we love ourself. He also expanded our circle of love to include everyone around us, including those we don't much like or are afraid of. Take care of those you love! Do that and in truth most of life will take care of itself.

We Made It!

Paul and I have survived and emerged from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Six days in the north woods was amazing, wonderful, enriching, exhilarating, relaxing, physically demanding and a great time. We are now in Chicago. We arrived here on July 9th, and were instantly engulfed in the family life of my step-son and his family, including a 3 year old and a 3 month old. Needless to say there was no time to post yesterday. Today Paul and I are off to the city to visit the Art Institute of Chicago Museum and do some other sight-seeing. I will post more about the Boundary Waters later tonight and hopefully be able to include some pictures. (Assuming I can figure out how to post pix.)

The Sabbatical Begins

My son Paul and I have traveled in 4 hours from hot, humid Miami to hot (90 degrees this afternoon when our plane landed), dry Minnesota. The adventure has begun! What seemed so far away when I first began writing the grant proposal over 15 months ago and then when I received the grant in September, 2007, has finally arrived. I am on an actual, honest to goodness Sabbatical. For the next 4 months I do not have to think about Church stuff. I do not have to write any sermons, or plan worship, or teach a class, or mediate a conflict, or plan a program, or keep a calendar. For the next 4 months I have only one have-to: to learn Spanish. I don't even start that for a month.

These first 3 weeks Paul and I will just spend time "being". No expectatioins. No requirements. We are going into the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area (BWWCA) for 6 days/5 nights. We will paddle and swim, camp and cook, eat and relax, take pictures and see what we can see. We will be without cell phones, laptops, ipods, TV, video games. We will be spending life at its most basic level. I am excited and looking forward to these first 8 days almost as much as the entire rest of the sabbatical. I am very excited about my time in South America, but I love the Boundary Waters. This is my sixth trip into this wilderness and it always restores and renews my soul. This place touches the romantic in me and evokes my yearnings for closer connections with the natural world in all its wonder and glory.

Last Sunday was my final worship service and really my last day of responsibility at the church for the next 4 months. I did not have to preach, thanks to my friend and colleague, Bill Koch, Southeast Regional Conference Minister of the Florida Conference UCC who joined our celebration and delivered the sermon. It was a relatively easy Sunday for me and the congregation threw a wonderful Bon Voyage Luncheon/Party after worship. Lots of heartfelt well wishes and encouragement was shared and a generous gift that surprised me. The gift of the time away was generous enough, but this additional support speaks of a deep love and sense of support. My heart was deeply touched. They truly sent me off in style!

There were a million details to arrange before I left. I feel I have done all I can and everything needed to prepare them to function well in the next 4 months. It was a much larger task than I envisioned and I am not sure I started preparing the congregation and myself early enough, but all has been done and at this point I can do no more. I leave them in God's care and in the capable hands of the Rev. Dr. Sheila Guillaume, who is Sabbatical Interim Pastor, and in the capable hands of many leaders in the Church, all of whom are very capable. I know they will do well and the church will do fine. It will be most interesting when we come back together to share our experiences.

This was a long post, but I will not be posting anymore for the next seven days until we come out of the woods. Until then, I pray you find your own time for sabbath.