Dirt Barbie Gears Up

Hello Dearest Blog Followers -

I'm going camping! Looking forward to the Memorial Day Expedition with my son and extended posse. Am not sure where where camping or how we are camping - might be base camping or could end up primitive camping, which makes for a challenge when my gear's not been in service for nigh on 8 years. Still and all, it's really just a matter of remembering what you know and locating the proper resources to make it work.

Late last night I came across a picture of myself from relatively happier times. I'd actually been avoiding looking at pictures from that period of my life, but last night I did and discovered that it was really okay. I changed my profile picture on FB to one of those pictures, because it's a reminder that there's a baseline of happiness I had and that it's simply a matter of getting back to that baseline. The baseline of happiness isn't contingent on things being in their proper place in my life, or knowing what to expect, much like this upcoming camping trip. It's really a matter of what I know about myself and what I know is absolutely required for the journey, in either case.

That being said, some things you learn from experience you can just do without, even when you've customarily relied upon them. This came to me as I was inventorying my gear. I've got 5 of us going and only 4 sleeping bags currently. I scoped around to see if I can borrow one, and if I can, that's great. But if not, I know that I can do without, as I've done it before.

I was on a coastal kayaking wilderness trip about 4 yrs ago with a group of teens, and later into the night, we discovered one of the teens misplaced her gear. If you've ever been coastal kayaking and carrying camping gear, you know that when the tides change and the sun goes down, it's almost impossible to get into the kayaks to find things. It was quite a frustrating experience for our team, and while I wasn't the lead, I decided to step up and offer mine. It wouldn't get below 50 degrees and with enough layers, I knew I'd be fine. And I was.

Now, if you'd asked me, would you ever just go out there and sleep without a sleeping bag prior to this experience, I'd have said no. Yet circumstances lent themselves to me learning something new. Life can be like that sometimes. The things we rely upon aren't always the things we have available to us, and we've got to step up and try something different.

On another trip I was on, we got lost in a national forest. I didn't really know much to speak of that would be of help to our leads, but I knew some things about not knowing what direction to take, as it had happened in my life. Sometimes it happens on a physical terrain, other times on a mental one. From those experiences, I knew that the most important thing would be to stay calm and calm others. When you're afraid, it interferes with your thinking process. So I offered that to our leads and it all worked out fine.

The newest part about both this phase in my life and the actual camping trip we're going on is that in both cases, I'm the lead. It's going to be up to me to know certain things and make some decisions and assume responsibility for when things don't work out. I am grateful for the experiences I had in the past, both in wilderness and in life, as these potentially can serve me well in these new endeavors.