Providence!

When we left for our annual family camping trip ten days ago, I entitled my post ‘Magic‘. A good number of you probably wrote me out of the book of the faithful with my use of such language. So be it.

We are back now, and whatever you call it, we are grateful. God was so good to us. At one point my wife and I stood back in wonder that not only all six children, one grandchild, and three ‘children-in-law’ were there – and that in itself speaks of the riches God has given us – but that also they all WANTED to be there. They all LIKE each other. That is not our doing, but is a gift of God, for which we are deeply grateful.

The trip (to the Cataloochee group campsite in the Great Smoky Mountains) was full of wonder. The isolation was marvelous, the beauty astounding, and the calamities bonding. Spent nearly all of one afternoon trying to fix an oil leak in my son’s car without the benefit of the proper tools. My grandson was off and on sick, and once fell into the fire pit. Ice was a two hour trip away. The listed ‘comfort station’ was not the expected sink and flush toilet, but four infrequently cleaned portables. And so on.

Barb and I once attended a seminar by marriage guru Gary Smalley. He said that the one constant he found among happy families was camping. His theory was that shared calamity unites us, and camping guarantees calamity. I can’t speak for the accuracy of his research or the validity of his conclusions, but my experience says that there is truth in it. We are not always a happy family and there are times we don’t all like each other. But we share some precious memories, often having to do with broken vehicles, excessive rain, poor trail map reading, or inadequate toilet facilities. After the fact, we laugh, and long to ‘do it again’.

My advice to families? Buy a tent and head for the hills. Works magic for us!

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