I’m going backpacking this weekend. Hurray! It, of course, is going to rain. I don’t care. I’m extra happy about this trip because it is the first time in a good while that my dad, my brother and I have all gone on a trip at the same time. Oh, and the dog too. It is going to be a pretty simple hike. Twenty miles spread over three days. But I am so psyched.

Backpacking is such an outlet for me. I think of it as kind of a zen release. My apologies to anyone who has a better grasp of zen than I do. It goes like this. You take yourself away from all the normal trappings. Put yourself in the woods. (We can’t call it wilderness, but close enough.) Then you start walking. Two miles, no problem. Five miles. Your focus begins to change. Or mine does anyway. Back up. Let me explain to you how my mind works.

My mind is in constant motion. Thinking about … well if you’ve read much of this blog you have a hint of what it is like in there. I go over the week at work in my head. I plan for the next one. I think about baseball, the NFL draft, my blog, your blog, how my Linux box is doing, about that time with what’s his face, about my kids, about my wife, about plans for future, about mistakes of the past. All the time. It just keeps going. And mostly that is good. But as you may be able to imagine, it can also be exhausting.

Now, as I was saying, walk five miles. With a pack on you back. You start to get tired. You have to push on. The mind begins to focus. On the walking. Walk a few more miles. Exhaustion sets in. The mind narrows its focus even more. It cares about one thing. Getting done walking. Just one step. And then another. Another. Over and over until I arrive at my destination. A shelter in the woods. I arrive with a mental silence that is rare for me. I sit down and my brains says, sitting, and nothing else. And then I can tend to the most simple yet crucial things in life. Getting food and establishing shelter. Back to basics.

It’s very refreshing. I will tell you all about it. And I am bringing a camera so there will even be pictures. Probably.

Have a good weekend. I will.