Family camp

We went to family camp this weekend at Camp Hermosa. My wife and I are more or less in charge of planning and running it, and we try to keep it vey low key.  We plan a few activities, but they're mostly optional, because our aim is to provide a relaxed and open atmosphere where families can spend time with one another without all the distractions of work and entertainment. 

What amazes me every time we run this weekend is how quickly people adjust to the easier pace, despite their expectations to the contrary.  When everyone is arriving, I always hear kids complaining that there are no video games and adults talking about all the things they really should be doing, but it isn't long before a few people are kicking around a soccer ball, and a few more are bouncing on the trampoline, and a few more are building in the sandbox, and a few more having coffee on the gazeebo.

The truth is, I think, that we've been trained into a lifestyle of unnecessary busyness. It's not that we don't really have things that need doing. It's that we always go looking for something else to do. There's something feverish about our activity, even when we're supposedly relaxing, even when we're supposedly vacationing.  We always seem like we're working at it just a bit too hard.

And yet, if we pull those distractions away, sit down around the campfire to chat with family and friends, we discover how quickly our busyness recedes.  We discover that work will wait until Monday, that the lawn can go unmowed for a few more days, that our shows will still be on Netflix when we get back. More importantly, we remember how good it is just to be with our friends and families, to share with them in ways that status updates and picture postings simply cannot manage.

Try it.  I think you'll like it.