"Happy" Camper

Oh, how I long for the days of singing "T with a T with T-A-N, A with an A with an A-K-O...T-A-N, A-K-O, Tanako..."

Camp Tanako...where the days were spent with morning worship by the lake and paddle boats and frozen Snickers. Not the ice cream kind--regular Snickers from the freezer. I loved my cabin, my counselors and my summer friends.

I'm a camper again...but it's not quite as fun. And we definitely DON'T get Snickers. My summer camp is full of sprinting and weight-lifting and crunches and on and on. I can't complain. I signed up for it. And I love it. But some days, like today, when it's rainy and foggy and my alarm goes off at 4:45 a.m., I just want to say no. No boot camp. But then I remember I'm going to the beach in 16 days, and I drag myself out of the warm bed, and drag myself to the complex, where our trainer is greeting us with a smile and his cup of coffee. Is it true that EVERY single day I wish I was the one standing there holding the coffee and not about to drench myself in sweat? Yes. But is it also true that EVERY single time I finish, I'm so glad I did? Yes.

Thanks for waking me up every morning, Matt!

"You never know what peace is until you walk on the shores or in the fields or along the winding red roads of Prince Edward Island in a summer twilight when the dew is falling and the old stars are peeping out and the sea keeps its mighty tryst with the little land it loves. You find your soul then. You realize that youth is not a vanished thing but something that dwells forever in the heart."

-Lucy Maud Montgomery