Camp Easter Seal is a beautiful place

Not everyone appreciates camping.  I have friends who require indoor plumbing and a minimum 400 thread count sheets on their beds in order to be comfortable.  I get it; I appreciate  these things too. 

However, there is magic when we spend time outside, breathe in fresh air, and connect with nature. Growing up, my family camped a lot.  My Dad, the innovator extraordinaire that he was, renovated a school bus into a camper that had a full kitchen, bathroom, and could sleep at least 7.  He also painted it green.  Often next to my maternal grandma, in my soft caramel-coloured sleeping bag that always smelled slightly musty, I had some of the best sleeps of my life in that bus.  However, when I saw that many of my friends were excitedly preparing to go to camp, the kind of camp where you with other kids and where you were away from your family,  I wanted that experience too.  It was hard to learn that kids who used wheelchairs were not always welcome - accessibility was very different then - and that if I wanted to go to camp, it would need to be with other people in wheelchairs.

I learned about Camp Easter Seal and despite the fact that I did not know a single other person with a disability, I wanted to go.  No one had to convince me.  However, I remember how nervous I felt driving with my parents to Watrous, Saskatchewan, because I had not realized just how far it was (a couple hours drive) from our family farm.  It must have been equally difficult for mom and dad to drop me off since they were used to being my primary caregivers.  It must have taken courage to place that trust in someone else's hands.  But drop me off they did.

In short, I had a wonderful time.  My camping friends and I boated, swam, went horseback riding, gathered around late-night bonfires, sang camp songs, and although we had cabins to sleep in most nights, we also slept outside under the stars once, making wishes on the countless shooting stars that streamed across the inky black sky.  When I woke up the next morning I had more mosquito bites than I could count.

Everyone should have the chance to camp, to experience the wonder and beauty of our natural world.  Camp Easter provides this for kids -and adults- who otherwise would not get that chance.  And it is more than that.  It is also a chance to be independent from one's parents, to make relationships with others who have disabilities too, and arguably most importantly, to have fun.  There is no sugar-coating it - having a disability is not always fun.  There are more moments of stress, anxiety, and barriers than most people should ever have to endure.  Going to Camp can be an escape from all of that.

Today in Saskatchewan, Boston Pizza will be donating 10% of total net sales that day to Camp Easter Seal through the Boston Pizza Foundation.  If you are from Saskatchewan, please seriously consider supporting this, and if you are not, perhaps take a moment to learn about the accessible camps in your own community, province, or state, and think about supporting them.  

wishing you beautiful outdoor experiences,
hk

Wabi-sabi

You won’t find it in glass and steel skyskrapers or in the flawless faces of supermodels.  It is beauty that is in the every day, the simplicity of daily living.  It is in the asymetrical shape of the bread dough you just formed and in the crack in your favourite teacup.  I am referring to Wabi-sabi, the Japanese philosophy rooted in Zen Buddhism that appreciates the beauty of age, cracks, and imperfections.  Instead of seeking perfection, and instead of resigning to the idea that the teacup is beautiful in spite of its crack, Wabi-sabi asserts that the flaws are the beauty.

Sometimes I feel like I am not supposed to own anything perfect.  After years of owning an outdated cell phone, I owned a new IPhone for less than 24 hours before I dropped it on our concrete driveway and cracked the screen. I imagine you too have Wabi-sabi in many parts of your life.  The heat mark on your dining room table and the scratch in your wood floor has a story, and maybe has beauty.  Look around with fresh eyes, a new perspective.  You might be surprised at what you find.

“Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That’s where the light gets in”

Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”

Wishing you beauty in imperfection,

hk

p.s.  For more on this idea, check out Leonard Koren’s book: "Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers," He defines Wabi-sabi as “the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete, the antithesis of our classical Western notion of beauty as something perfect, enduring, and monumental."