Humpday Help - Personal Landscapes

When the week seems to be dragging and your mood is low, try to think back to a place in your childhood... a landscape where you felt free. Now grab a cup of your favorite beverage, sit down, relax... and put yourself in that place.

Some of my best memories are from time spent at the family cottage. My grandparents built the small structure in the 1950's to give the family a get-away, a place to hunt and fish, a place for grand kids to enjoy. The building was small, built on a cement slab but had large bay windows overlooking the lake and a wonderful loft where kids preferred to sleep.

I always woke early but would lie in my bed listening to the birds outside and Grandma moving around in the kitchen until my cousin Randy stirred. From his bed he could look down the loft fold-away staircase into the kitchen and had perfect view of the stove. This vantage point allowed him to see when the bacon was done cooking and upon his observations we would manage to be the first at the breakfast table.

After the meal we usually went for a walk in the woods until the sun rose higher into the sky warming the lake. We would then race into the water and spend the entire day pretending to be aquatic. Only at the promise of a evening bonfire would we return to shore.

Finding bonfire wood was one of our few chores at the cottage; that and emptying the honey dew bucket. Ewe! Anyways, during one of our hunts for twigs and decent bonfire wood we found a giant wooden spool... the kind cable is transported upon. We dragged that spool back to the beach and played games with it all summer until it mysteriously disappeared.

I always felt good being at the cottage. Perhaps because I was surrounded by family, perhaps it was the effect of nature on me. When I was alone, I believed I was closer to God. He whispered to me in the trees of the woods while birds sang His praises. I felt His touch when the gentle breeze caressed my face while sitting on the end of the dock.

The cottage is much older now but the water is still clear and God is still there. Now a third generation frolics on the beach, searches for bonfire wood and waits for bacon to finish cooking.

Now it's your turn to enjoy your personal landscape.