'The Northern Lights have seen queer sights' - Question the Coincidence....TEEPEES

from 'The Cremation of Sam Magee'-by Robert Service


I am a camp person. Camp people are a species unto themselves. We were the ones who were packed up and sent away for two months when young (6 years old off to Canada in my instance) and told to "enjoy the summer" by our mostly young parents. They did visit after one month however! This was a common practice when I was growing up in Michigan though perhaps it seems a bit unthinkable or dismissive by today's very protective parents.

After the initial shock that there was no way out of this, those of us that were camp people began to understand our incredible fortune and freedom in having been sentenced to a summer of sailing ,canoeing, waterskiing, windsurfing,campfires,horsebackriding and nighttime co-ed activities with peers, all to be enjoyed WITHOUT YOUR PARENTS AROUND!!!! It was hard not to fall in love with the summers at Camp Arowhon on TEEPEE Lake in Algonquin Park, Canada.

One of the most memorable and exquisite visual sites that can be recalled as a youth was sitting in a canoe in the middle of the night in August and seeing the NORTHERN LIGHTS (Aurora Borealus)Light up the sky over TEEPEE LAKE. Like a virtual explosion of color: pink, green, blues , yellows, purples lighting up the sky...it was magical and obviously memorable!

Now for the coincidence. Last evening, I was in one of those end of the year nostalgia modes. I was lamenting days and people gone by having just attended a Camp Arowhon reunion in Toronto, (for those of us who shared the summer experience on TEEPEE Lake in Algonquin Park, Canada) of persons that I have not seen in 20 or 30 years. A time for reflection of what am I doing? What must I do? What have I not accomplished in life (the list is soooooo long) and feeling like...IS ANYBODY UP THERE LISTENING? A little assistance please??

Anyways, I went to sleep troubled and when I awoke this morning, on my Blackberry was an email. This was from a real estate colleague, Not a camper, not a person who even knew about my Camp days. It read:
NORTHERN LIGHTS OVER TEEPEES!
There followed photos of the gorgeous and explosive, extraordinary Northern Lights over literal TEEPEES,on a lake shot in Canada.

I question the coincidence and laughed about the literal TEEPEES. Someone up there was listening...I have a feeling that I know who it was as Amy and I went to Camp together! Thank you for the quick reply.

What a wonderful reminder that we can manifest what we ask for and how fortunate we are if we can conjure up spectacular shared memories. I will try to remember them with joy and wonder, not melancholy and nostalgia.

Love and Light,

Buddish Girl



p.s. I shall include photos of the NORTHERN LIGHTS as soon as I can find a more techno person to help.

p.s.s. I must address the Cremation of Sam Mcgee poem. It was first told to me by a wonderful man named Lou Handler and owner of Camp Tamakwa on South Tea Lake in Algonquin Park Canada. I was 6 years old at the time. It was in his cabin on the first night of Camp with Hot Chocolate in hand that this poem was recited to me. That night began a journey of the most defining and significant experiences of my youth that lasted until 21 years old at Camp and a relationship with Algonquin that continues today.

So I thank you Lou, although I had to leave Tamakwa and switch over to Arowhon on TEEPEE Lake at 10 years old, I have never forgotten you .... "And now may the great Camper of All great Campers be with us until we meet again". HOW-HOW