Daily activities take longer outdoors. Making coffee entails pulling the camping stove out of the truck, filling the percolator with water, lighting the stove (sometimes refilling the propane), waiting for the water to boil, pressing the coffee.
Usually by 10am we've cooked breakfast, washed ourselves and our dishes, rolled the sleeping mats, stuffed the sleeping bags, taken down the tent, packed the truck and are on the road, heading to the next camp site or national park or state.
After the sun sets, we reverse this routine. Setting up camp takes nearly no time at all, but preparing dinner takes hours sometimes, chopping, boiling, dressing, saucing, cooking.
I like this.
It's methodical and ritual, and allows me time to reflect on the activity and give thanks for the place I'm in and at, the food I'm preparing and the people for whom I'm preparing it. Food tastes better outdoors, sights look more vivid, scents smell more distinctly and touch feels more sensitive. We live with a heightened sense of alertness and remain conscious in the moment. I don't want to lose this when I'm back in the real world.
—Jessica
Wow, I love this.
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