[Adventure] In Discovering the Gifts of Quarantine

[Adventure 60]

Inundated lately with so many social media posts and conversations about all we've lost due to living in quarantine for the past year got me thinking. Yes, we've missed homeschool co-op, theater, worshiping in our church building, Tuesday nights @ the table with our church community, going to movies and museums and such, visiting my husband's family out of state, holidays with loved ones, and summer camp with old friends and new. But we've also had experiences - good experiences - we would not have otherwise had. 

One such experience happened for us a few times. 

One of the big questions a couple months into quarantine was what we were going to do about our campsite reservations at Camp Calumet in Freedom, NH. We usually spend two weeks there in the Summer while our youngest two are in resident camp. But resident camp didn't happen. An email from Calumet offered a cabin by the lake and a bathroom private to just our family instead of our campsite (and associated lack of facilities). We changed our reservation from two weeks to one and took them up on their offer. My husband was unable to go due to logistics of out-of-state travel and post-travel quarantine, so I took a horde of children to camp on my own.

Later in the Summer, we were able to return for a long weekend with my husband and then, in the Autumn, spent another week there as a family, returning home the day before another travel ban took effect. 

I don't think we will ever experience Camp Calumet the way we did in 2020 ever again. 

It was strange being at a camp devoid of campers. There were staff and a few other visitors while we were there, but for the most part, it felt like we had Camp to ourselves, especially during our Autumn week. It was wonderful to wake up each morning and, usually, make myself some camp coffee, grab a blanket, and head to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was so much fun doing scavenger hunts around all of camp and rarely seeing a person who wasn't in our family. We cooked wonderful meals in our instant pot or ordered from Yankee Smokehouse or Wicked Fresh and ate dinner together every night as a family. We had lazy days and active days. We read books, did puzzles, swam, lounged, napped, had wonderful conversations, and brought back with us wonderful memories and stories about the Wompous, the bear, and dehydrating mushrooms in the bathroom, the ducks, and camp dip.

At one point, as I sat alone in the outdoor chapel, autumn leaves flitting to the ground around me, I realized how truly holy that place is. Not just the outdoor chapel, but all of Camp Calumet. It is a place, set apart, where the spirit of love lives. Love lives there when the camp is filled with resident and day campers and staff, family campers, visitors, and volunteers and it lives there in the emptiness of quarantide. No matter how many or how few people inhabit Camp Calumet, God's presence there is palpable. 

What a gift to have that precious time together in such a beautiful and sacred place, away from the stresses of life as usual during a global pandemic. It was in the solitude and sanctuary of a camper-less camp that I was able to let down my guard and be reminded by God each day of the love and beauty that abound in this world and in my family.