Going to the lake was not something my family did, nor did we ever go camping. As my dad used to say, “why would I spend all my money on things for the house and then spend the weekend away from them?” I had a super awesome child and our family did a lot of things together, but camping and hanging out at lakes were not one of them.
Every single day I feel like I have nore things to do than time to do them. There’s always a project, whether it’s doing something on the computer, something in the workshop, something in the yard or something to the van. There’s never a moment in my life where I feel like I have nothing to do. Don’t get me wrong — occasionally I do nothing, but it’s never because there’s nothing to do. My mental “to do” list is neverending.
In a way that’s why I feel like camping is a waste of time. It’s not because there’s not stuff to do or fun to be had there; it’s because it’s this 24 or 48 hour period in which everything on my to do list goes on pause. If I’m camping, I can’t be building things out in the workshop, or editing YouTube videos, or messing around with VHS tapes, or doing one of a thousand other things I do in my spare time. And if you DO do some of those things, like play video games or watch movies or or whatever, the self-appointed “camping police” will come for ya. Trust me.
On this week’s video, I went camping by myself at a local lake. I turned my phone’s ringer off and although I took my laptop with me, I barely used it. I tried to make a point of living in the moment, there, at the lake. I didn’t want to bring everything from home and just do those same things somewhere else. So, I bought a fishing magnet and a fishing hat and a camping chair and devided to just chill at the lake, doing lake stuff.
And… it was okay. i get it. There’s something about being out there that does recharge our mental batteries. Occasionally there are trucks without mufflers and kids with loud stereos and boats with loud motors… but in between all of those things, there’s a lot of quiet. At first, the quiet makes my mind race. With no electronics in front me, my mind goes 100mpg coming up with things to do — new projects to tackle when I get back, ideas for books, ideas for videos… you name it. But as the day turned into night, my mind began to slow down. For maybe half an hour — and that’s a long time for me — I did nothing. I sat in a camping chair, watching the lake and surrounded by my new duck friends. It was nice.
Pulling off this trip was a bit of an experiment as I did it on a work day. I wanted to see if I could make it to the lake after work, camp, and make it back home before my shift begins. It was close, but I pulled it off. If I do it again, I’ll pre-pack things the night before so I’m not in such a rush the minute I clock out from work.
In a couple of months my wife and I will be taking the van cross country again. The last time we did so we stayed at a campground and all I did was watch TV in the can. This next time… I’m kind of… looking forward to it?