Lost and Found: A Tale of Self-Discovery

I am a comfort traveler on vacations. I prefer the luxury of a hotel bed and crisp, clean sheets. The concept of camping seemed hard at first.

One camp followed another and my inertia had changed to interest. I look forward to the great outdoors now.

Here’s why.

Camping lets you connect — in more ways than I ever imagined.

1. Connect with yourself

The 4G network had half a bar. There was no Wi-Fi. My fingers twitched for “feeds”. My brain buzzed around searching for an online fix.

But the tent had to be pitched. That became my focus. I gave it my attention. It was important to find luxury where I am, with what I had. The tent was pitched. Experienced campers would notice in the image above that the tent could be done better. I felt that was good enough. It needn’t be perfect. It was an achievement.

The buzz in the head settled. A beer helped. My breath became deeper and slower. There was a rhythm about it.

The phone beeped and I was running low on power. I chose to ignore the charger.

And then night fell very slowly. When one is not feeling that transition, it feels bright one moment and dark another. But when one is, there are a hundred shades of yellow, orange, red, violet and blue in between light and dark. The Artist was putting on a show. One last painting assignment before She closed for the day.

There was the gibbous moon, the lone light at my tent and I. I was back being that boy who many years ago idly counted the stars and squinted his eyes to see the patterns on the moon. The rabbit leaning against the cactus. It was still there. The crickets hadn’t changed their accent as well. Things hadn’t changed much.

In a moment, I traveled over 30 years.

The real things that matter seem to hide among camp sites. They appear if one cares to look after the digital dust has settled — friends, family, health and passions. The rest did not seem to matter.

2. Connect with nature

All I remember is falling asleep in cool moonshine and a dazzling view of the sky, that is hard to get in the suburbia.

The next morning, I woke up fresh, with no alarms.

The cushion of grass, the tent floor, a picnic blanket and a sleeping bag kept me comfortable. But what I also realized is that out there in the real world, there is a rhythm. The crickets stop chirping at some point, the worms have their window of opportunity, and the birds definitely have their pecking order in the wee hours. As I stepped out of the tent, the last of the straddler birds had found their worms, and the grass was still moist with dew. The things that we miss in the daily grind.

A lazy day followed.

In the late afternoon I went for a walk. A much-walked path among the woods led to grasslands and then onto the ocean. Midway through the walk, I removed my footwear. It had been a while that my feet had genuinely connected to the earth. There is a pleasure in feeling earth that has not been corrupted by tarmac or manufactured walkways. There is an element of unpredictability — one does not know what the contours or the feel of the next step is and there-in lies the pleasure. My soles got used to the texture of stone, grass and the sand. It seemed like Woodstock to my senses — I was sensing and feeling things around me as if in overdrive.

As in the image above, the setting sun bathed the landscape. The wildflowers beamed along. The sea gulls did not expect a treat when they met a human; and seemed unfazed by my presence. It was life as it was for thousands of years.

I was fully converted as a camper — from the lethargic to the reluctant to an advocate.

The day I got back home, I planned a trip with my family — yes, another camp.

3. Connect with the kids

“Is there going to be Wi-Fi”, my daughter asked.

“No, but there is going to be magic. We are going to sleep under the stars”. That was enough to get a primary school goer excited.

Kids are manufactured for the outdoors, the more you keep them outdoors, the more they grow.

As you pitch their tent (image above) — their roof and comfort space for the night, your role as a provider is magnified. They see that process evolve in front of them more tangibly than the mortgage payments that you pay electronically. They want to join in and contribute to the process. There is a sense of bonding that is immediate.

We sat at the beach as a family, looked at the horizon and shared our dreams. “I love the ocean. It makes me happy”, she said. I have been attracted by the ocean too. It is almost as if there is a hidden GPS somewhere inside human beings that navigated us towards water sources.

At night, there were more bed time stories than normal. The bon-fire spit characters for fantasy and drama. There were more hugs and cuddles. There were more shooting stars spotted. There was contentment.

Go camping. It is totally worth it!

Readers, I am keen to hear from you and improve.