Winter Friends Weekend: communing with camp friends in the north woods
- Jenny Rule
- Mar 21, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 9
(With a nod to John Steinbeck's Cannery Row)
Winter Friends Weekend at Y Camp Nawakwa in northern Wisconsin is a snow globe, a fire, a cuddled child, a harmony of song, a joy, an idea, a nostalgia, a dream.
Winter Friends Weekend is the shared and the remembered; the ski and pole and trail and booted foot; the frozen lake and silent wood and new snow; the hushed conversations; the nooked reading, the delicious crock-potted food and the time-earned kinship.
Winter Friends Weekend is yoga and sport and husky licks; forts and make-believe and guitars.
Our hostess brought food and rugs and firewood; drawing on her experience from a history of winter sojourns. Her guests brought books and maps and stories and music and snacks and gratitude and silliness and dance moves and love.
Children found a willing audience and ample playmates; wisdom transferred subtly in whispers and example, in solemn answers, over card games and puzzles to wide eyes and open ears...the benefit of communal living.
Early risers made coffee; late talkers folded blankets and put the kitchen to rights. Folks went off in search of flow in sport or nature; returning to put their wet socks by the fire and add a piece or two to the puzzle.
Sunday we made a reluctant departure from the snow globe sooner than our hearts wanted, as those in the know shared the forecast. We all made it out ahead of the winter storm except our hostess. She drove part way, then wisely pulled over as more cars were sliding off the road than were staying on. We texted as we arrived home safely. She texted that the weekend's leftovers were being shared in the hotel lobby; as stranded travelers found the restaurant closed, they fortunately found our generous hostess hosting again; new friends in a new snow globe, breaking bread.
Sojourn on!
Such a lovely reflection on our time up north! Made me at once weep and smile. Thanks!