We talked about going camping last year, but it never happened. I am terrible at stuff like this, doing something we’ve never done before – especially if it means making phone calls to make reservations or something. I get very anxious about trying new things and it frustrates me greatly. We rarely did new stuff when I was a kid and that certainly plays a role. I don’t want it to be like that for my Okapis. I want them to feel free to try new things, to experience life in all its many forms.

Of course, for them to feel that way I need to step outside myself.

The interesting thing for me in all of this is I have such a hard time making the phone call (most phone calls, really) or getting the reservation or whatever it is and am annoyingly anxious on our way to wherever we’re going. However, once we’re there, I’m usually in a good place. The hard part is over and the real me is able to come out and shine.

For instance, I was worried about getting to the camp site – especially because they said they only had a few sites left and with my luck…you just never know. Gem had called and we rushed out of the house, forgetting most of the stuff we needed – except our tent, thankfully – and got there bright and early in the morning. We got there and got our space and started to set up. That was when it became clear that in our rush we had forgotten some important things. But it didn’t matter. Anything we didn’t have we could get and we could make do with the rest.

We had only set up our tent once and that was last July so when we found that the instructions had been ruined by water from a leak in our basement last fall, I actually didn’t get too upset. I just worked through the problem and we were able to get the tent up without any extra pieces left over – always a good sign, I think. Once the tent was set up, it was clear everything else was secondary and either we would be able to get it or we would make do without it.

The Okapis spent so much time inside the tent, running around, jumping all over, having a great time. If camping out was only playing in the tent, it would have been enough for them, I think.

But instead we took a hike through the woods seeing a chipmunk, lots of birds and a deer five feet in front of us. We used our binoculars to bird watch. We did spend some time shopping for some of the stuff we had not brought – like food, matches, charcoal, unnecessary stuff like that. But we kept thinking if we’re having this much fun and still had to go shopping, next time, because we definitely want many more next times, we’ll have even more fun and be quite prepared.

Despite the shopping, we still managed to go to another National Park, a refuge for birds and other animals. We saw an osprey and a fox and more deer. We saw caterpillars and inch worms and butterflies. It was really cool.

But maybe the best part was while we were getting ready to go take our second hike of the day, I was putting a bunch of stuff into a Target plastic bag, because we had no backpacks or anything (again, the whole leaving the house in a rush thing) and I was going to carry it with us during our little trek.

Gem looked at me and seemed to make a decision.

“Do you mind if we give you your Father’s Day gift now?”

At that point I knew she had gotten me a new backpack. How cool that my Father’s Day gift was not only something I needed in my life (the backpack I had was not in good shape anymore and a little embarrassing) and picked by someone whose fashion sense I trust above all others, but I also received my new backpack at the exact moment when I really needed it. All through our trek, I carried the backpack and my hands were free to look through binoculars or to find something in our bird book (that’s how I knew for sure it was an Osprey). At several points, I had completely forgotten I was even carrying my new backpack because it felt so light on my shoulders, the weight very well distributed.

I can’t really explain how MUCH I enjoyed the entire experience and how much I want to do it again. With everything going on in my life right now, being able to get away, to be with my family – the people I feel most comfortable with in the whole world – to try new things, to reconnect with nature, to see wild animals, to see my Okapis’ enthusiasm and excitement, to really feel the teamwork between Gem and I was invaluable.

But it also made it seem like Long Island isn’t as bad as I feel it has been. If there is a way to connect with nature, to get away from it all, then maybe spending the next 20 years or so here won’t be so bad. I don’t mind driving 45 minutes to be able to get away from it all, from people, from chaos, from suburbia and city life, to see live animals, to see trees aplenty and bask in that environment. To me, that only adds to our quality of life. I never really knew how much of a nature person I really am, but the fact is I feel better in nature than I do anywhere else. It’s just that I’ve always been too afraid of new things to let myself really be aware of that.

Hopefully, that is now behind me – at least when it comes to how important and how much I need to be in nature.