Raccoons in state parks are the boldest in your face night scuttlers that you can encounter in the contiguous United States. They love food, specifically they love your food and can open most containers with ease. They seem to not grasp the concept of a zipper yet but what they can not open they try to chew threw. I caught three of them worshiping this zippable trashcan we had in camp. They raked their long finger nails across the crinkly surface and made their weird croaking sounds to one another. “Yes it smells good” “Yes” “Yes” “Love this we do yes” “Yes love” “Yes yes” “Stealthy are we” “Yes stealthy” “Yes yes yes” The crazy part is that when I confronted the enthralled worshipers they tried to take the camp trash can with them. Aside from the nearly painful beauty of the outdoors this kind of experience is what I enjoy. Only outside could you have run into something as humorous as The Cult of The Undying Smelly Crinkle. Vacations are a removal a shaving off of the unnecessary. For me it is like taking off your work clothes putting on comfortable shoes and shorts and going for a walk without your cell phone. Only then do we pay enough attention in the silence of thought that we might actually have some real deep revelations That is why camping suites me. It makes every day tasks like cooking, cleaning, and bathing a little more difficult. In return you get the outdoors, adventure, and to fall asleep in your chair under the stars next to a warm fire. Your children build forts, listen to your stories, and learn how to remove a tick from their skin. They get to see dad do adventurous fulfilling things, even though they might be a little difficult. Camping and vacations also lessen the stress caught up in my everyday and lets the thoughts flow freely through empty quantum tubes. Never believe a person when their answer to “what are you thinking?” Is “Nothing.” They are lying but not to you. They are lying to themselves. I thought about how I enjoyed the landscape of Arkansas so much that I actively devised ways to stay there. I considered the characters in the book I am writing and realized that two of them could not but fall in love and would never be able to be together. I got closer to big decisions ones that I had tried to draw close to earlier but found myself just too burdened. I prayed in a hammock under the stars surrounded by raccoons. I prayed for my family, for me, I confessed sin, I glorified God, I practiced the chief end of man, for I enjoyed God. If there was punctuation that could indicate how guttural and primal those actions where I would use it all over this article. It is hard to come back from vacation. It is even harder to give up the last day of it so that you can get back and support a group of people you care about. I am a changed man after camping and traveling but not because I went and had fun and relaxed. I am changed because I stepped far enough outside of my circumstances let myself change. To ask what God wanted and to make it what I want. I suppose there are consequences for letting such thoughts run through ones mind. I don’t really care though I just hope that my hope will not be deferred and if it is that I might not end up with a sick heart. I left raccoons, hiking, plenty of daddy time, and sleeping under the canopy of God. I came back to bugs in software, pressing deadlines, home repairs and TV. I can do without a lot of this but I am sure I will be okay as long as I keep the deep wood and my little spiritual campsite lit with the fire of the word.