I’m at my parents’ house spending some much-needed time doing as much of Absolutely Nothing as possible. We started the week off with two days of camping, which sounds like doing Something, I know, but it wasn’t. No, camping removes all possibility of working, so it’s the best way to start out a vacation because it snaps you out of work mode and forces you to sit back and relax whether you like it or not. And I liked it.

At one point on our second day of camping, we were sitting around the fire, talking when we had something to say, reading when we weren’t staring at the fire, and staring at the fire the rest of the time. Part way through this we had to decide if we wanted to eat lunch. Not a momentous decision, I know, but the question came up.

“Shall we eat lunch?” asked Mom.

Without removing our gazes from the fire, except to see if the caterpillar had made it across Jesse’s shoe yet, we thought about this question.

Dad made a rustling sound, indicating that he would be happy to move if that’s what we were doing, but not committing himself to moving if it became apparent that nobody else felt the need.

Jesse poked at the fire with a stick.

Toby scratched his ear.

“I don’t think we’re done sitting yet,” Heidi offered.

So we sat some more, staring at the fire, watching the caterpillar inch its way across the dusty ground, listening to the breeze rustle the forest top, and wondering what all those cicadas had to say to each other all day.