We leave to come home enlightened, another way.

Saturday July 25^th 2009: What do we appreciate with camping the most, what is the gain; is it planning the excursion, doing it, or is it having done it when safe back home again? It’s hard to say really as there are so many impressions to take in and analyze. However, I do believe we need to go camping more, to get together, test our limits and try out something called patience based on whom we are camping with. Anyway, out there we learn about ourselves and it’s not always the same path leading us back home again.

…I woke up as a new person after a very good night sleep. Being out camping… not so bad after all I thought. Somehow all my planning had changed, but I didn’t care that much, not now anyway. I mean, things didn’t turn out as it should, or rather as I had hoped for. But that was then and this is now, another brand new day. Like a child looking ahead full of expectations I prepared for the day, but like old me I also thought back a lot of just that “What had I hoped for?” and it took me some time to realize when getting myself ready preparing breakfast and all that I hadn’t hoped for much, actually nothing really.

Weather was not the best this morning and I didn’t hurry breakfast to get out experiencing nature right away, I did that yesterday. Okay, I don’t mean experience nature like yesterday, what I meant was when nature “LIFE” takes you on a ride, when things you don’t expect just happen and enlighten you positively. Regardless of what, I of course was going out this morning as a brand new person, positive and happy whatever happened.  I finished breakfast and got ready to go out, and then it started to rain. Not much, but you know that sort of drizzle that makes you wet anyhow. I didn’t bother of-course; I wasn’t going to do anything special anyway.

So I just got hold of my handbag and an umbrella that strategically was placed on the inside of my cabin door and I didn’t forget gizmo. He had been very quiet this morning, not saying much. I think he somehow managed to adapt to my morning pace and my mode of complete calmness not bothering so much. It wasn’t that cold outside, no wind to talk about and with the umbrella protecting me from being wet; I headed to that path leading to the lake again. I don’t know why, but I liked it there somehow, it brought me peace.

Same as yesterday Gizmo shut down displaying that same error screen as before. I wonder why?… There was nothing in the way and after some testing moving around here and there, it was just the path he wasn’t able to deal with. Strange, but gizmo didn’t say anything so I continued my walk down to the lake. During my walk it soon stopped raining and the sun broke through, much to my liking. I folded my umbrella and used it as a walking stick the rest of the way. When coming down to the lake everything was as before. The bridge, the camping chair, the lemonade bottle and the book; everything was there as before. I was in a good mood and as far I could see there was not a soul around, so I went out on the dock to have a better look out over the lake. Not a boat in sight, no nothing. Everything was just peace and quiet.

Without thinking that much I sat down in the camping chair and from above I briefly had a look down at the book placed on the dock beside me. It was probably a very good book, but I had forgotten my glasses. “Just as well”, I thought, I wasn’t that curious anyway. I hadn’t brought myself anything really, come to think of it. I smiled to myself, I had just left the cabin with nothing more than just me. Not quite though, I had brought my handbag, gizmo and that umbrella. Okay, what use were those things to me now?

I guess I sat in that camping chair looking out over the lake for about an hour or so without much of a thought. I didn’t feel like solving worldly problems while sitting there. However I did pick gizmo up and he looked kind of sad at me with his error announcement displayed all over. “What kind of life is that” I thought, having to be connected all the time to function. This little gizmo guy didn’t know much about life. I pressed some buttons and kind of caressed his display and somehow I think he felt that. The error display disappeared, but nothing more showed up. I came to think of gizmo’s camera function and taking a picture I though would be nice to have, but somehow gizmo wasn’t able to see through his lens and I started to wonder if inability also included his microphone? I tried to do a recording of some bird song I heard not far away, but no, gizmo was as if both blind and deaf.

I came to think of children born with those handicaps and, like gizmo now, aren’t able to see all the beauty or hear the music nature was able to create without any human noise and distortion. But children feel, I thought, there are so many more ways to experience nature for a child than this little gizmo dude I held in my hand was capable to. “I wonder?…” how about trying to enter some text, will that work? I tried to write something about the place, the birds, the weather and such and like a slow delayed copy coming out from an over aged dried ink printer, gizmo in fragmented grey repeated what I’d just entered. But there was some more text following. After the text I had entered, there was some other text added. What… no it can’t be? Is gizmo answering me?

“What is a bird? What is sky and heaven? What is water?” gizmo spelled out in a shy way.

It was so nicely displayed that I couldn’t help myself answering, and like a child listening to a fairytale, gizmo seemed to pick up every word I wrote. We must have been sitting there for more than two hours chatting when I felt for something to eat. I squeezed Gizmo gently and typed in what I had in mind and gizmo responded with an understanding okay.

I went back the path and even though it started drizzling again at the path entry, that was no big deal. Gizmo let me know with a short nice tingling that he was online again. I peaked into my tent and sorted out some aluminum pots, a coffee can and some other things I thought I could have use for. And of course, I brought my ancient can opener, a knife and matches too. Inside the cabin I brought coffee and made me some sandwiches with cheese, ham and some vegetables I felt for putting in-between. And with everything packed in a big grocery paper bag with handles, gizmo and I went back to the lake again.

Even though gizmo lost online contact when entering the path, he didn’t say anything. The rain stopped as before and at the lake it was a nice pleasant weather welcoming us. I unpacked my paper bag a bit up the shore where the dock began. I had brought a flat aluminum frying pan that I skewed down in the sand a bit to get it on an even horizontal level as a base. On a big pot I made some air holes in the bottom and sides with my can opener and placed it on some small stones, equally high, on my base frying pan, in order to make free passage for some air coming in under it. Then I searched the nearby grounds for some sticks and with my knife I made them fit in the pot with the air holes. The pins and sticks were all dry and there were no problems to light it all on fire and soon I had a small nice fire burning inside my pot. The small coffee can I filled with water from the lake and with some other metal pins I had brought, I was able to create some crossed bars where I could place the coffee can on top right over the fire. Coffee would soon be on its way.

I liked this and I told gizmo everything I had done in order to make myself coffee. I even shared the taste of my coffee and sandwiches with him, as I enjoyed my meal. I think gizmo enjoyed taking part in what I was doing; at least he said so in one of his comments.

This way gizmo and I spent the rest of the day chatting till late. I packed my things to get back to my cabin. The pots had cooled down since long ago and I poured some water over the remaining ashes to be sure that there was no fire left in the coals and then I placed the all wet ashes in a small hole not far away from the shore. Coming out from the path the rain had stopped and the sun had managed to dry things up quite nicely. Gizmo and I made ourselves a good evening meal with wine and all inside the cabin, but I had no intention to stay the night inside as yesterday, no not this night.

I picked out my things from the tent and took it all inside the cabin. From the cabin I brought a spare mattress, my sheets, blankets and pillows from the bed that I had used the night before and with some small efforts I managed to get it all inside the tent. A super day like this had to end in a perfect way and it did. Gizmo seemed not bothering being online again, instead he eagerly waited for every new letter I typed and every new word I entered. I wanted to give him something to remember and to take with him home after our small camping adventure, so I came up with a fairytale I thought he could enjoy. Not necessarily the truth though, but gizmo seemed to enjoy the story and followed my telling in his own way, almost like a child expectantly waiting what will happen next.

This my fairytale started out with me and gizmo looking down on a river embedded by nature deep down below, making its way to the sea. This was not any kind of regular river; the water it was carrying had a story to tell. But to hear the story you needed to get very close and appropriately respond to everything the river in trust was telling you in order not to awaken its anger. Gizmo was prepared to do all that and as a first response he showed me a picture from home that he had kept hidden deep in memory, away from ever being erased, and with that picture covering his screen this our camping  story ends.

…

I don’t think I need to say that gizmo and I made many more trips on that path to the lake, and I think it was with a mutual understanding of our differences and purpose in life that we started to like and care for each other. Providing information, gizmo tried to support me out camping, and, by sharing my views of life and living, I tried to give gizmo a life and a more meaningful existence beyond all the environmental hazardous waste and electronic junk which otherwise would be his final and only destiny.

Ohh… that other tale gizmo so eagerly wanted to listen to those following nights of us camping together; do you really want to know?