Cousin Camp
I have this recurring dream… It is
summertime at the pond, and my cousins and I are all little kids again. The sun never sets and the rain never comes
and the pond is always as warm as bath water.
A gentle breeze starts at the east end of the pond and little ripples
break waves onto the shore. Goosebumps
rise on our skin, and it is warmer to be in the water than out on the dock.
Somehow,
I have decided, we were swindled out of this time when we were little, and so I
have spent the past two summers constructing elaborate do-overs for two of my very
special cousins. Last summer when my extraordinary
Cousin Asa and his beautiful family came to Vermont from their native
Australia, it was the first time he had journeyed to the Green Mountains where
our Dads, twin brothers, had been raised, and where my Dad always
remained. When we arrived at the pond, I
assured him that we would spent our weeks together doing all of the things that
cousins who have the opportunity to grow up together get a chance to do and
maybe take for granted: sleepovers,
Simon says, hop scotch, cribbage tournaments… Honestly, I think he was scared
at first, but over the course of our weeks together, we really did make up for
lost time. I felt like our bountiful
meals and awesome adventures would never end.
Camp was the scenic setting, and we were the protagonists… this time we
got to choose. Love conquers all was our
theme. It conquered time, space and
distance of every kind.
This
summer my remarkable Cousin Katherina and her friend Mia came from Sweden to
stay. Even though Katherina lived in
Vermont until she was five years old, has been back several times and we have
visited her in Sweden as well, there is never enough time to make up for all of
the lost moments. Family history is eked
out between some potato salad and the pie, and our laughter forged new bonds
for the future generations. Now that our
children are grown and living in distant places all over the world, the pond
harkens us back and offers a healing balm to the past that splintered us all
from one another. When I was little and
suffered horribly with my eczema, inflamed skin from head to toe, I believed
that the water from the Pond had healing and miraculous properties; now, as I watch family come from around the
country and around the world and be restored, I know that it is true.
I have
this recurring dream. It is a camp where
cousins, friends who are more like family and family alike can come… No matter where we are in the world and what
we have going on in our lives, we will all have a place to come and call our
own.
...I know that it is just a dream, but I like it.
