Matthew Arends - Landscapes I

When I was  four years old, I went on my first weekend camping trip. In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia we went, the first weekend of January. It was very dark and Cold when we arrived to the parking lot of a church around mile marker 21 of the Blue Ridge Parkway. There was two feet of snow on the ground and the parkway was closed. We had to hike 3.5 miles into a cabin 1 mile of which was through the woods on a hidden trail to the cabin. We headed out and it was not an easy trek, snow was up to my waist and I had to be carried for much of the trip by my dad. My feet were very wet and very cold so my socks were replaced and newspaper bags were added as a protective layer between my wet boots and my new dry socks. several hours later we arrived at the Cabin, started a fire, and we went to bed. Though it was such a hard hike in deep snow, I loved every minute of that night and that weekend. Since the age of four I have been at that cabin the first weekend of every January. This place for me was made sacred and is continued to be sacred through the ritual return and the constant anticipation of January camping; as aligned with Lanes Axioms in Landscapes of the Sacred.