Missing a Pinecone or Two

I just finished making 48 cupcakes for a friend's baby shower tomorrow and I'm super tired! Went camping for about 24 hours and decided that I really am not a country girl. I like my comfort, including my a/c, mattress, and filtered water. Oh yes, and pit toilets (I don't like them). This particular one was quite clean, to my pleasant surprise, but it did host the requisite number of flies that flew about in angry circles, their furious buzzing a minor irritation to say the least. And I did see a mother bear and her cub cross the road (thankfully I was in my car at the time, and at least 50 feet away!) so that was pretty exciting.

My tentmate and I were functioning on very little sleep and when we turned in for the night last night, it was already nearly one in the morning. Amidst many giggles, she finally wiggled into her mummy bag and proceeded to stretch out, only to discover a rather disconcerting matter. Her feet were higher than her head. Neither of us feeling faint at the moment and not needing extra flow of blood to the brain, we decided to sleep with our heads by the entrance of the tent. After shuffling our mats and various asundry items about, we decided to give it another shot. It was much better. Except for the fact that we were, again, on a slope. A rather slippery one as the floor tent was made of plastic. I started the night out with about a foot of space between our sleeping pads and found myself about 15 minutes later with about a millimeter inbetween instead! I replaced my mat, but woke up in the middle of the night right back in the same position, so I gave up. Sleep was more interesting to me at that moment than rearranging my mat every two minutes!

I learned a lot in the past 24 hours. I could probably write a book about it all, but here are a few pithy thoughts:

• It is not nice to make fun of others, even in jest or as a means of explaining something
• Everyone has a right to be heard
• Everyone has the right to have their own opinion
• I need to learn how to accept other people's opinions
• Not every well-meaning action is right
• Injustice exists and Christians are not called to roll over so they can be stepped on; we have a duty to address sin
• Behaviours which used to be seen as aberrations but are now much more common are still not addressed as such
• It's okay to be me