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I could also title this post "Taking a Deep Breath".  It doesn't matter.

For those of us who are stay-at-home moms, our work is never done.  When my husband suggests that we stay home on vacation, I chuckle.  Staying at home for me is never a vacation.  My job continues.  Cleaning, cooking, managing activities, taking care of the animals.  The only way I can have a vacation is to get away, and in John's defense, he is very, very good at allowing me that luxury.

Interlochen is the balm of Gilead in my life. It is a time where I get away from the monotony of life at home.  We can eat at the cafeteria for every meal.  Ahhhh, not needing to figure out what we are eating each night?  Such a lovely thing.  I also don't have to clean.  There are hired cleaning people for our cabin/dorm rooms.  They even clean the bathrooms!  Too, both John and I receive a bit of a respite from our church responsibilities.  While we are still asked to speak at our 15-person branch here at church, and I still play the piano for sacrament meeting and special musical numbers, there is nothing more expected of us.  I must admit that I enjoy just showing up for church, five minutes before church begins.

Plus, the environment of Northern Michigan is my idea of heaven.  When I was a teenager, I was asked to describe the most beautiful scene I could envision, and without knowing it, I described this place.  The trees, and the water, and the quiet.  Coming to Interlochen recharges me for the coming year.  It is my balm of Gilead.

My kids feels the same.  As hard as they work (and yes, they are in classes and rehearsals for eight hours a day, six weeks total), they never complain.  In fact, when we go home, they feel a bit aimless.  Glo literally starts counting down the days for the next Interlochen season the day we leave camp.  We love it here.

This year, pieces of our life in Pennsylvania followed us here.  In fact, I haven't felt the catharsis of Interlochen.  I have had to make an emergency trip back to Pennsylvania, my family members have come and gone (I'm fine with the coming part, just not the going), and troubles at home with the animals have weighed heavy on my mind here.  I have had little time to attend concerts, or practice with my kids, or even walk through the pines.  I've been in a lake just twice since arriving here, and I've only bought five pies.

Today, after dealing with so much sadness yesterday, I felt a bit angry.  Or maybe desperate is a better word.  Only eight days left of camp.  Only eight days left to recharge my batteries.  I don't want to go home with a feeling of "I wish Interlochen had been..."

I went on an errand today.  I took the extra 15 minutes and walked through camp (instead of five minutes driving).  I walked through the piano practice huts and heard pieces of music I had once played.  I listened to the birds.  Most importantly though, I remembered.  I remembered what I had felt in years past.  I remembered the peace from previous summers.

And I am holding onto that peace.  I am holding onto those memories.  I hope they will make up for what I haven't felt so far, and will help me through the upcoming year.


Comments

  1. It has been a crazy summer for us. Ethan coming home, Mark leaving. 19 pups; one shed made of several two by fours some plywood and shingles; one patio made up of hundreds of pavers; one rock wall made of 30 2-300 lb. rocks; one acre of corn, with hundreds of corn plants, thousands of weeds and probably about 6 hungry deer eating my corn to the ground; 3 friends that have helped me with my shed, my patio, my weed whacker and my dangerously built rock wall. I'm glad Mommy and the kids can be at Interlochen for another week, with no sick pups, almost all the other pups sold, no extra driving and some beautiful music and our friend Art who lives at Interlochen.

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