Girls Camping Trip: The Day I Spent Alone

While the dinner was excellent, and s'mores even better on Monday night - my head wasn't as great.  I knew when I went in to the tent that I wasn't doing good and the meds that I was taking weren't conquering.    It was not a fun night for me - trying to keep my pain on the down-low so my family didn't get bummed out, and trying to keep something cold enough next to my head to keep the pain from spreading.   The whole time I kept thinking, "How many days am I going to lose?".  The last major one lasted 50 hours - would it be Wednesday or Thursday before I could even function again?  So, I prayed and sang songs of praise in my head, and tried to leave it all to God to heal me sooner than later.  

In the morning, I let the family know I wasn't doing good, and pleaded and insisted they do a day of adventuring without me.  They ventured off to Redding and the Shasta Lake area with my blessing and I went back to sleep.  

At 11am, I woke up again, this time - PAIN FREE!!!  This is, at least lately, a virtually unheard of scenario to recover so fast - particularly when it feels like the pain has already begun its migration course (it begins in the neck on one side, moves up into the sinuses on that side, moves into the top of the head, and goes down the other side....)    PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

Michele and the girls had literally only left about an hour prior - I just missed them...but, I was totally okay with being left behind knowing I wouldn't be for the rest of the week.  And, really, I wasn't alone - I had blue jays, chipmunks, deer, grouse, robins, and chickadees to keep me company.  (Did I mention I had absolutely no cell service here - and without a vehicle - I really was alone).  

So, I chilled.  And rejoiced - there's nothing like coming out of a pain episode early to make me so full of gratitude.  I snacked on the few remaining treats hanging around the campground (most were stored in the car to avoid bears coming to the camp) - and shared with the wildlife.  And I read from my Kindle.

Eventually, I hiked down to the entrance of the campground and took in the lake. 

And found more reasons to be full of praise. 

Listening to worship music with this kind of view - having some total-forced solitude....SO GOOD!

Around 4pm, I returned home to find our suspended garbage sack wasn't as critter-proof as we thought.  (Get outta there chipmunk!)  I also started to worry just a bit.  I figured the girls would be home by 5:00, but I had no way of knowing - and it doesn't take much thought process at all to realize just how many things could go wrong with them - and how useless I was in my scenario. 

But, just around 5:00, my van pulled up and I raced to greet them.  I think they knew I was past my headache when I was jumping up and down at the car. 

Before dinner, I walked the girls to the lake for them to get an opportunity to swim a bit -

 

While the day didn't turn out in any way like we'd planned, it turned out to be a glorious one nonetheless.