I’ve been trying to write this first chapter to the Never Ending Summer for the last 5 days.
It’s hard to explain something so perfect.
Sometimes the beauty of a moment is unexplainable. You just sit in it and become it and let it take you wherever its going.
The flow
That’s the summer cabin in Aitkin MN. This cabin sits in the woods on a small lake called Elm island. The water on the lake is so calm im pretty sure I’ve walked on it.
The water is a bit weedy on the shore but theres a ton of hidden life down there and on a bright summer day I could spend hours sitting on a paddle board watching the little fish race around the weeds.
Britt first took me to this place the year before we got engaged back some 15yrs ago or so and every year we come back for the summer and its like a time portal thats protected by a dome that keeps the outside world out.
Everyday is a perfect day and then you wake up and do it all over again.
Elm island is where I found out I was having my first kid. It was also the first time I experienced heaven on earth.
Everything slows down, there’s no distractions and time moves fast but its a good kind of fast.
Its like crusin in a lambo flying across hwy 1 watching the sun set and it doesnt matter how fast you’re moving because you’re in a lambo and so invested into the moment that each moment just strings together to the next moment and it just start to feel like one ever flowing time in space.
Last year we skipped coming here and went to Malibu CA for a little over a month in the summer with our trailer and the kids begged for us to go back to Aitkin and no Malibu.
Theres a freedom to less.
Back home there are a million things that pull us.
Sports, friends, lunches, dinners, date nights, group hangs and literally a million other things. Most weeks at home from the time I wake up until 9pm my time is accounted.
All very good things.
Sometimes though I feel like its a bit like the trojan horse.
You let all of these amazing things into your life to only realize you might be doing it wrong… You might be over spending and investing in the wrong places.
As you get older and have kids and have a community and the house with the dog and the new car you gain new responsibilities and the evil sister to growing older is becoming a people pleaser and saying yes to everything because you want to fit in and be accepted into this new tribe.
Years go by and you wonder why you never ride bikes anymore or why you never go tent camping or why you never hike the mountain behind your house to watch the sun rise or why you never have time for your parents and you realize in the pursuit to feel accepted and loved in a community you actually lost everything that made you really special.
You MUST fight this.
I’ve fought it so hard the last 11yrs. Even taking this summer trip is a fight. I have to figure out how im going to make money while im not at home and do we even have money to get there in the first place and then what about when I get home do I have work waiting for me?
Sure I’d like for these adventures to just work out perfectly but they don’t… Most of our trips we plan but we have no idea how they’ll even ever happen. But that’s how you have to live life.
There is beauty in letting go
Unless, you want to be the grumpy 70yr who regrets never risking something for the fear of the unknown.
Things work out they just do. Maybe not always when we want but its all so interconnect that in time it does work out.
Look if you stare at rocks while riding a bike you’re going to hit the rocks but if you focus on what is in front of you and stack good decisions (without basing them on fear) eventually you’re going to get to where you wanna go and then from there you get to explore a new place and repeat the process.
So britt and I just always choose to make the plans and decide thats what were doing even if at the moment it seems impossible.
It’s called Adventure and its a pretty exciting life. You’ll get ALL THE FEELS.
This summer cabin and these summer long trips with my family remind me that I am completely responsible for the outcome of my reality. That when I leave here after this summer its up to me to keep that simple, adventurous, youthful spirit alive.
It' doesn’t mean to create more boundaries in my life it just means to stop acting like i’m a billionaire with my time because each day its getting spent regardless.
So stay focused and be intentional on where that time is going to get spent and have fun with it because we’re really here and gone.
Whens the last time you tried something new?
Whens the last time you did something just to do it for fun?
Toss on some roller blades and go for a cruise?
Spend 10mins looking for some new music on Spotify?
Knocked on your neighbors door unannounced with a coffee just because?
With the first week ending here, something i’m taking away is that I am dedicated to working hard to provide experiences like this for my family and sometimes you gotta take the risk for the experience to gain new adventures and memories, and that my kids are always watching and that they need to see me work hard but also play hard and they need to see the kid in me come alive.
They need me to dance in the rain with them and they need me to stop work when they need me and they need me to infuse a spirt of wonder and awe and that anything is possible if you’re willing to roll the bones and take a chance.
So much of life is just going for it and then letting the momentum cook something special up and some dishes take longer to cook and thats okay. Because after you eat that dish you gotta get fed again so its back to cooking.
And thats just it. My legacy for my kids will be my spirt and to me thats an obligation I have to get right and ill empty my tank daily for that.
So here I am writing this first entry to the Never Ending Summer and i’m staring out this little window from the cabin basement watching my kids fish and scream and its time I go join that beautiful chaos. I’ll get the rest of my work done tonight while they’re sleeping.
Cheers to never giving into the things that steal your precious time and spirt.
Don’t believe the hype. You’re too special to waste your time trying to impress people that just dont care. It’s never worth it. Keep it 100 and let that impress people. Let your CHARACTER impress people.
Anyone can buy shit…
1 Kings 19:11-13
If you want to experience life you have to be willing to risk it all for something unknown and even better.
Thank you Elm Island and thank you to the biggest blessing in my life Britta who’s shared this peace of heaven with me.
-Timmy
XX
SLOTH