June 2007

Insects and Such

            I had been canoeing in Canada for a few years and had such a great time that I wanted to share the experience with my family.  I was sure they would love it as much as I did once they actually experienced it.  The girls were in high school at the time, and it was the age of big hair.  We loaded the car with all our gear and the wonderful freeze-dried food we purchased at the camping store.  The women were tentative, to put it nicely, but once they experienced the true wilderness and its beauty, they would be enthralled by it — so I thought.  Everything we would have to survive on was in two canoes.  Two days out, a canoe with a father and son pulled up to our camp site wondering where the restaurant and food store was.  Someone had played a joke on them and told them there were plenty of stores on the lakes, so they brought no food.  We shared some of ours.  The father was paddling for all he was worth while the pouting son was laying in the canoe. 

            The portages began to get to the family.  Each time we would get to the end of one lake we would have to carry our canoes and all our supplies to the next lake in order to get deeper into the wilderness.  As we set up camp one night the girls were in distress.  Their well coiffed hair with its perfumed shampoo and mousse had attracted insects from all over.  Their hair was literally alive and buzzing.  I told them they would have to dive in the lake and wash them out, but they resisted, because that would mess up their hair.  Finally, they were so miserable they took the plunge.  But as they were washing, leaches began to try and attach themselves to them.  They came screaming out of the water.  Needless to say, it was not the great adventure I had anticipated.  To enjoy camping you have to accept the reality of insects.  I should have been more sensitive. 

            Another trip I had was cut short because of black flies and mosquitoes.  Blood was running down from the welts on our legs left by the bites of the black flies.  In spite of my protestations, the others decided they had had enough. 

            I mention all this to say that we often feel as though life should be ideal.  No flies, no bugs, no problems or difficulties.  But life is found not in the absence of these things, but in spite of them.  Life is never ideal.  And joy is found is seeing and experiencing the beauty around us in spite of the annoying, pesky and even troublesome things life can bring.  If a person waits to be happy until there are no problems, they will never be happy.  Difficulties and trials will come in life, but they are the little things (in spite of how big they seem at the time), and we need to focus on the big things — the beauty all around us, the joy and pleasure that God has built into life.  We can choose to focus on the bugs or the beauty. 

            Thanking God for a good world,

                        Rod