Holiness in our Midst: Session 56

SESSION LVI: ON FAMILY VACATIONS

STORY CIRCLE PROMPT: Where was your family’s favorite vacation spot? What memories still delight you?

I was five when I was first tucked into a life jacket, helped down into a motor boat, handed a fishing pole with a little red-and-white bobber, and told to be patient. I didn’t have to wait long! A big fish found the minnow on the hook that Dad had shown me how to bait! That year we were at Sunset View Lodge on Leech Lake. I was hooked from the start on family vacations spent at various northern Minnesota resorts. Each June, until I graduated from high school, we spent a week in a rustic cabin fishing, swimming, sun-tanning on the beach, and just plain leaving our work and school routines behind. Truth be told, we also had our vacation routines, but they were of our choosing. We were too busy to bicker, awakening before dawn and grabbing our fishing poles to get a head start out to our secret fishing hole. Floating along an island, we experienced together the sun slowly rising over the lake. Moments of pure quiet were punctuated by cries of “I GOT ONE!” Most suppers, we feasted on Yellow Perch, Northern Pike and Walleye, dipped in cornmeal batter and fried to golden perfection. Some afternoons, we read books or played games at The Lodge and spent our saved-up allowances on snacks of ice cream bars and root beers. On rainy days, we would pile in the car and travel to nearby Bemidji to visit the Paul Bunyan statue. We smiled big as we got our pictures taken with our superhero. Our parents would shop at the famous Bemidji Woolen Mills and purchase red plaid jackets for fall. On other outings, we would drink in the beauty of the pine and birch trees of the Chippewa National Forest or visit Itaska State Park and dip our toes into the headwaters of the Mississippi River. We returned home refreshed, with a freezer chest full of fish to last us until the next year…

FOR PERSONAL/JOURNAL REFLECTION:

1. Read the above reflection.
2. Write about your family’s favorite vacation spot. Can you still return to the same place?

FOR GROUP STUDY:

1.   Read aloud Session LVI.  
2.   Ask each person to answer the Story Circle Prompt.

[View Past Sessions Here]

Note: Holiness in Our Midst: Sharing Our Stories to Encourage and Heal is a monthly on-line feature created by Janis Pyle to facilitate sharing of our personal experiences, thoughts, beliefs, and spiritual practices with one another, especially through stories. Barriers are broken down when we begin to see all persons, even those with whom we disagree ideologically, as sacred and constantly attended to by a loving Creator. Each column is accompanied by a “story circle” prompt and study guides for personal and group reflection. To share your stories, contact Hannah Button-Harrison at communications@nplains.org. Janis Pyle can be reached at janispyle@yahoo.com.