Ed’s Corner

Ralph Waldo Emerson describes (though unintentionally) what many of us, regardless of our age, feel when at camp and in the outdoors:

“Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear. In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth.”

Camp is just around the corner. The warm summer season to come makes it easy to ‘cast off our years’ and step outside. Fair, sunny days, thick afternoon thunderstorms, tall grass, blooming flowers, all of nature very much alive, gives us every excuse to drop what we’re ‘supposed to be doing’ and spend time just ‘being’ outdoors. Whether you have children at camp, or if your children now have children of their own, you too can be like a child again, outside in the green and growing world.