Here...for a while

One of the gifts (and responsibilities) of being a temporary resident is an enhanced understanding of the feeling of transiency. "I'm only here for a while..."

When I spend time in a new place that I know I may or may not see again, I look at the sights with an appreciative eye. I immerse in the atmosphere....and I interact with the living creatures (human or not) with less awareness of self than when I am on my home turf where I think that I have ownership. Familiarity can breed an attitude of possession or entitlement...and those attitudes spill over into myopic vision and stingy actions. Over time, the understanding that somebody is going to be affected by what you have done or left undone may actually be obscured.

The reality is that any place I occupy is really not mine...it is simply where I happen to "be" ... for a while.... and in time I will no longer exist... and somebody else will "be here."

Wilderness camping re-establishes the awareness that space can be cared for, but never really "owned".

We set up camp, arrange things to suit our needs, and the small section of the woods and lake shore quickly become "ours". The sight of our tent from the lake is immediately that landmark that says "home" after a couple of hours of paddling. For a few days we occupy the space. It is the place where we "live"...but not for long.

We usually stay at a site for less than a week. While we are there we assume responsibility for it. We protect it from intruders...we mess it up, then we tidy it up. We maintain it, even "improve" it if necessary. Our investment in the place is to live there in comfort and security...to embrace the pleasure of the place.

Camping etiquette dictates that, when one leaves a site, there be no "sign" of one's residency. Nothing particular about "me" should mark the spot.....it should be more pristeen than when I arrived. I want to "disappear" from the place so that somebody else can enjoy it as fully as I. One wonderful camping tradition, though, is to set a fire for the next person--hospitality, you know! This compassionate, this awareness of the "other" is, in truth, one essential quality which distinquishes us humans from the wild creatures.

These thoughts meander back to Brecksville as I wander about familiar places where my footsteps have been and where they will continue to be, most likely, for years to come. I am freshly reminded that this place is no more "mine" than my previous and temporary home in the Adirondacks. Years from now, I will be no more...and somebody different will live in this home, walk through my yard and in the Brecksville woods.

How am I caring for this place? What are the ripple effects of what I do, how I am, things I say, relationships I nurture? Are the marks that I leave behind centered on my own self interests or are they geared towards a future that extends a warm "welcome" to those who will in the future occupy the spaces that were once "mine"?

I hope and pray for appreciative, grateful living ... walking through my routine environs with a fresh eye and with a keen understanding that I am only here for a while.