Just a short photo montage for your enjoyment. Above and to the left is the pickerel I caught being fried up, above and to the right is me in the latrine and finally on the bottom is our cabin. You can see my tin-can garden growing on the rail. Camp is going well, but taking a lot of energy and time.
MWA is somewhat short staffed this summer, and primarily in the roles which support staff so people are on edge about things somewhat.
Yesterday I took my final step into the annals of Canadian manhood when I lit a fire using naught but my hands. Like my ancestors of a thousand years, I rubbed two sticks together and made fire. This seemingly innocuous act separated me from droves of men and women who have walked this earth before me.
I miss my friends, I miss integrity and purpose. What are we living for if not for ourselves? After answering that question I ask myself if I would lay it all down and go back again to live in the Dominican Republic. How I’ve missed it there. They have need and I have opportunity, but once again I’d be putting off my education and any hope for a degree in the next four years…placing me at the rugged age of thirty before I finish school and have a family. So now I wait for God’s hand in my life to push me in the direction I need to go.
Sometimes I feel as though I’m chasing a dream, or wasting my time. My life without sacrifice for the sake of the cross is a life poorly lived so I persist to make decisions that might not make sense to my family and my friends.
Does it even make a difference?
Virginia and I spent our day off on Catherines cove today. Lake Superior was warm enough to swim and we both took advantage of some sun…which seemed much more potent than it was in time of my youth and left us both slightly rosy in the cheeks despite our SPF30, liberally applied.
Two stops at Tim Horton and a couple of ice cream cones later, we’re back at the staff house and eager to get back to work…fresh and rejuvinated by the hot sun.
It’s been a good year for catching fish. So far I’ve eaten a Lake Trout, a Pickerel and a Northern Pike all taken from the waters by my hand. Here’s a photo of my pickerel.
Peace.
Life always seems to take a turn for the worst when you run short on something you need. You suffocate when you run out of air, dehydrate when you run out of water and starve when you run out of food. It’s strange though, how miserable life can be when the only needs we fulfill are necessities. We want something more for ourselves and spend our whole lives chasing it.
Where does one find fulfillment, when nothing by nature is fulfilling…that is to say in and of itself? Fulfillment requires something more than the act we’re performing, relative to the act and not the individual. Where it comes from is inside. When the act is something that we do, in as near an altruistic fashion as possible, for others, we find fulfillment. Not in what we do, but in who we’re doing it for.
Life becomes very sad if we never learn to live beyond our own needs to surivive. Air, food, water and warmth can be pretty boring if that’s all we have.
Well, I’ve starting developing my curriculum for survival classes today and this past week finished my certification for Low Ropes courses and Climbing walls. That’s right…I’m a climbing all instructor now (who would have thought!)
Virginia is in-bound from the Soo and so are all the pets.
I caught a 3 pound Northern Pike on my 5th cast of the year and was nice enough to throw it back.
More to come…maybe even pictures.