Summer is here. For many that means the chance to get out of town. Where are you headed this summer?
Any time a trip looms on the calendar, a sense of ancipatoon begins to snowball. Sure there are errands to run and things to pack, but when the adventure of a trip looms, checking off the to-do carries far less burden.
Last week I stood in REI staring at backpacks. My old pack has frayed and loosened enough that it’s time for a new one. Here’s the truth: I am going to buy a backpack to use for a trip, and then it’s going to sit in my closet for the majority of the next year. I’ll use it again, but mostly it will collect dust. But as I stand in the store staring at all the features I want but will hardly use, I begin to hope and see the possibilities.
I envision hiking a mountain trial as my kids shove their water bottles into the pack and pull out snacks. We’ll sit together as the sun sets, watching wildlife emerge after a day of hiding from the heat. Maybe we’ll even catch a glimpse of a wolf or grizzly in the distance. Someone will reach into the pack to grab binoculars. Dusk will give way as the stars join us overhead. At some point as nature serenades us, my wife and I will debate about sitting late into the night or departing to get the kids to bed.
As I stare at the unending choices of backpacks, this story brings me energy and life.
I don’t picture the backpack on the floor in my closet for 350 days. You know what else I don’t think about? The letdown upon walking into house after the trip. The death of a grand adventure buries the soul. I remember coming home from camps as a kid- saying goodbye to friends only to lie facedown on the couch at home. Alone. Lonely. Wishing only to recreate the intimacy and laughter we just had.
A summer trip is a great microcosm and invitation to look at hope in our life. Our heart is made for story, so we look for stories to invest ourselves in.
P.T. Forsyth said, “If within us we find nothing above us, we succumb to what is around us.”
In anticipation of a trip, a story of possibilities looms ahead, and the potential for adventure, beauty, and connection seeps into us and fills us within. When the trip dies, though, what stories will carry us? We could look toward the next trip. I can walk into an outdoor store and feel my heart begin to dream. But every trip ends and leaves me empty.
Most of the stories we hope in die. In the midst of the letdown, we either place our hope in a larger story, or we look around us for a something to hope in. Really our inner life becomes a search for a story big enough to sustain our heart, which leads to hope.
And hope we must have. Hope we must find. There is the Latin phrase “Dum Spiro Spero”, which means, “While I breathe, I hope”. Of course Dum Spiro Spero depends on the stories we invest in. Either we fail to resist the small stories around us, jumping from hope to hope, or we find a Story above us big enough to sustain us within.
This is not a one time battle, by the way. To live well and with heart, we must wrestle with hope and story by the day and hour.
So this summer, have a great trip. And watch over the ways your heart looks for a stories.
Process:
What stories fuel you this summer?
