Ch-ch-ch-changes ...

A stage in my life came to an end last week. It was a stage I refused for a long, long time to acknowledge would ever come to a close.

My daughter was the first to make me see there was no holding it back. Then my husband dragged me kicking and screaming toward the inevitable when he bought a boat for the third stall in our garage and a car that doesn't tow. But inevitable it was. As my kids have grown, our family has changed and so, necessarily, have our interests. And camping seems to be one of those interests falling by the wayside. We sold our tent trailer last week.

From the time when my husband and I first started dating, we've camped. One box of supplies, tents, mats and sleeping bags, and we were set. A dog and a child made camping in an actual tent much more complicated, so that's when we bought our tent trailer.

The trailer made family camping trips doable. There was a door and real beds, a table and a roof over our heads. We stored all our non-perishable supplies in the trailer, so that all we had to do was pack groceries before taking off. The beds were even more comfortable than my bed at home and we had someplace to hang and play cards if it rained.

We had that trailer for nineteen years and took very good care of it because I knew that when it was gone I'd be done camping. No more sleeping on the ground for this old body.

But it's not really camping that I'm sad to let go. It's the family time, the long hours with my kids fishing, hiking, talking around a campfire. The most poignant memories I have of family time are associated with this tent trailer.

I still remember our first long trip we took right after we bought it. We went to Wisconsin's Door County and my daughter, only two years old at the time, had her first ever pony ride. I remember all three of us, my dh, dd, and me, taking an afternoon nap, dd lying between dh and me. All three screens were open and breeze blew over us almost as if we were outside under the trees. After a long, peaceful rest, my daughter woke, sat quickly up to look around, and asked, "Where go my house?"

When the weekends got busy, we used to set the trailer up in our driveway. The kids would play in it during the day, eat lunch at the little table and have sleepovers with friends. More than once, I had to go out and sleep with them because a noise might've scared them, or they'd told too many scary stories.

My parents loved it when we camped at the park in my hometown. Instead of hanging at their house, they'd hang with us at the park until long after dark. We'd be sitting around the campfire and my dad would get tired and go home. But my mom always slept over with us. I didn't fully understand why until now. It gave her a chance to slip back in time and relive all her sweet memories of taking her own kids camping, sleeping almost under the stars, waking slowly to sound of birds two feet away.

Quite honestly, we should've sold that tent trailer a good two years ago. Some people seem to take life changes in stride. They glide easily through the natural stages of life. Unfortunately, I'm one of those who doesn't.

Is there a trick to it? Is there something - a personality trait, an attitude, or something else - that makes life easier? Have some of your life changes been easier to deal with than others?

Helen
And, yes, a few tears were shed in the writing of this post!