As we celebrated my father’s 80th birthday, I was in a reflective mood.  My thoughts stretched back to some of my earliest memories and I savored the joys of the moments at hand.  The enormity of all that happens within the span of a lifetime hit me.  It was more than the landmark highlights that came to mind.  Marriages, births, graduations, big birthdays, yes, those are grand, but it was the little bursts of joy filtering through my mind that struck me most.  I realized that these small moments brought the most powerful feelings.

I came across a quote by Mister Rodgers.  I love Mister Rodgers.   He was a kind and wise soul.  “Each generation, in its turn, is a link between all that has gone before and all that comes after.  That is true genetically, and it is equally true in the transmission of identity.  Our parents gave us what they were able to give, and we took what we could of it and made it part of ourselves.  If we knew our grandparents, and even great-grandparents, we will have taken from them what they could offer us, too.  All that helped to make us who we are.  We, in turn, will offer what we can of ourselves to our children and their offspring.”  These were the words from Mister Rodgers that I found meaningful as we celebrated my father’s birthday and as I began to face my fast approaching 50th.

I look back with thankfulness to my parents and their parents, noticing threads that tie me to places I cherish.  Memories connected to these places have deeply impacted my life, providing tradition, a sense of history, a story of becoming.  I understand there are many ties that connect me to places and practices that are an important part of who I’ve become.  That is an exploration and discussion for another time.  Here and now I find myself reflecting on a place I cherish by a lake.  I can feel the warm sunshine and cool gentle breezes that rustle leaves against white birch branches.  I can see pine trees that create a hushed refuge under   their outstretched branches.   I can hear the crack of a golf ball and track it as it lilts in the air.  A splash of water brings me back from my daydream.  I’m sitting, with sand between my toes, on Sylvan Lake beach.  A smile is spread across my face.   Focusing on the spot where squeals of laughter have joined the splashing,  I see my three children as I once was, challenging my cousins for supremacy as ruler of the raft. The game of King of Mountain continues.  My brain slides back and forth, then and now.  I see my little sunburned self jumping from that raft.  How sweet it is to be able to give my children blissful days by the lake, making memories with their cousins just as I did a generation before.  It’s rare to find a place that can continue to hold onto the past while welcoming generation after generation into it’s evolving embrace without loosing its sense of identity.

This journey on Gull Lake, in Brainerd Minnesota, is an exploration of a place that is important to me.  It’s part of who I am.   Michelle and I are kayaking from end to end, coasting into its coves, exploring the resorts that have made its’ shores home for generations.  This journey is part of who our children are.  The lake and the resorts that dot its’ edges are weaving themselves into their lives as they too spend time reveling in the joys of carefree moments.  These moments take root in our hearts.  We find peace here, as our lives become more complicated.  I understand that this link between generations is a treasured gift of many in the Brainerd Lakes area.  This journey is for you.  Even if you’ve never been to Gull Lake or the nearby Sylvan, come along for this ride anyway.   You’ll enjoy our adventure and we’re pretty sure that along the way, our adventure will help you recall moments that have built the foundations of your identity.  People who have mattered in your life just might show themselves anew, places that were once important to you might live more vividly in your mind’s eye.  Maybe this journey will inspire you to explore who you are and what makes you special – “just the way you are”.