The Story I Find Myself In: Roughing It

Well, last week I had quite the lifestyle change.

I had spent the better part of a week with my good friend as she house-sat this incredible house in north DC. This house was truly amazing (and excessive). A gorgeous (and obviously rarely used) kitchen, two dining rooms, three sitting rooms, three bedrooms, two patios, a study, a workout room, a home theatre, and seven bathrooms. Who needs seven bathrooms?! Not these people.

Oh, and a pool. Though I have to admit, the pool was my favorite part. I could spend the afternoon lying out by the pool, taking a dip, and when it got too hot just retreat into the gigantic, air-conditioned house.

And from there I went… camping! Last weekend was my church’s annual church-wide retreat at the West River Retreat Center in Maryland. As the youth minister I stayed with the youth in their lodge, which was not air-conditioned, and slept on the little camp pallets on bunk beds that I got so familiar with several summers ago at Lutherhill. I went from having just about every luxury at my fingertips to living with what I crammed into my backpack and the food from the camp cafeteria.

Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t rough it the whole weekend. The main lodge was air-conditioned, the food wasn’t too bad, and we did get to spend some time in the pool when it wasn’t raining Saturday afternoon. The drastic change did bring something home to me, though. How much do I really need? How much of my stuff actually matters? It’s kind of like when you clean out your closet or find a box that somehow never got unpacked (which I’ve also done recently- oops), and you discover all of this stuff that you actually managed to forget you had. Clearly it was incredibly important to you! How much do I really need if I can literally forget that I owned something?

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the weekend, which really was quite lovely. None from the house, but oh well. Enjoy, and have a lovely day!