I took a vacation day today because I am going with several UU friends to deBenneville Pines Cluster Camp in the Angeles National Forest this weekend. I don't know why other people attend--whether for spiritual renewal or retreat or connecting with old friends--but I go to get outdoors again, if only once a year.

I grew up living much closer to the natural world than I do now, as I currently live in the heart of the Los Angeles megacity. I miss the close connection with earth, trees, sun, small creatures, hearth fires, changing of the seasons.

So I won't be attending the day workshops for spiritual growth, nor the evening campfire talent contest. I'll be the one outside, sitting on a log or a rock by the stream that runs alongside the camp, meditating on the infinite, or thinking about nothing at all, just being there, at peace.

I brought some science fiction to read, just in case it rains and I have to stay indoors, but even then the experience will be pleasurable, reading by the fire, listening to the rain on the roof and the wind in the pines.

Monday is a long ways away.