Building Tents and Resets

My tent was made of numerous blankets and towels I grabbed from the house.

It was pieced together by a million clothespins I took from the outside laundry line, along with lengths of leftover clothesline rope I found, to hang the blankets and towels from. In my mind, each tent I built seemed better than the last one.

I built these tents in the backyard of my childhood home. We had a great yard for city dwellers with a flat section that was turned into an ice rink, complete with boards, that my father built. Lots of maple trees to climb, grassy areas, sun and shade. We also had a pool my father built from cinder blocks, a hill for sledding, and a place to ride our bikes.

It was an awesome yard!

I was able to sleep out spending the night in my text with a neighborhood friend or two. We didn’t have much to fear sleeping out int he yard in the city except the local skunk, and raccoons. When evening came, we were in their territory.

Living in very dewy New Hampshire where the moisture in the overnight air left everything soggy by sunrise. Inside the tent was not protected by cotton blankets and towels. Come morning the walls would be soggy and sagging. We’d be soggy and freezing.

We loved it!

We were learning how to be hardy, adventurous, and resilient.

By being outside, in the fresh air, in the dark of night, debating about peeing outside or going all the way back into the house, and having a flashlight, helped us build or confidence while gaining knowledge of a bigger, much broader world and our connection with it.

It was so dark in that back yard.

It was so uncomfortable, and scary, cold and damp.

Yet we were determined to get through the night, to tough it out, to feel independent from our families.

I got to be a wild kid through being outside.

I was not a dolls and dresses kinda kid.

Our imaginations got some exercise. There was no competing with technology. Our distraction was Saturday mornings, cartoons eating endless bowls of cereal doused with sugar. And Sunday evenings with Disney.

It wasn’t a perfect childhood but, I had the outside at my fingertips which made it incredible for me.

My yard shaped me to this day to find something hard, or uncomfortable to do each day.

This Saturday the organization Outward Bound is having a Reset Day.

The Reset? Turn off the technology for a day.

Not all kids are growing up with the same opportunities that I had as a kid. They don’t know the effects of nature, of outside.

Many adults who did have wild child experiences have forgotten.

Time, attention, awareness, and connection to our outside world is being robbed by our technology-too much tech. If you can quantify it.

Fresh air, feeling cold, feeling wet, feeling the sun on your skin, climbing a tree, being physical, all these things that connect us to our bodies, that build our confidence, and build our awareness and connection to all things is missing.

Learning about Reset day left me feeling nostalgic for my childhood wild side. So I joined the reset movement pledging to be tech free for a whole 20 hours.

I probably won’t build a tent in the yard or even in the living room, but I can tap into my wild side in my adult way. This Saturday we are expecting an arctic blast, so I’ll bundle up to get out for a trail walk with a friend, then savor a big ole hot chocolate with some whipped cream. I’ll have conversations with live humans, write in my notebook, and draw on paper- the things I like to do and want to do more of.

You won’t see any photos or videos.

Maybe a drawing.

Consider joining in by simply turning off this Saturday for the duration of your choosing.

On Sunday, let me know if you joined in.

I cant wait!.

Here’s the link

https://www.outwardbound.org/thereset