So we’re headed off into the woods again. Heading off into the woods has become what we do to relax, because what’s more relaxing than taking two small, hyper children into remote backcountry by canoe and chasing them around there for a day or two?

It is relaxing, just not in any of the ways that one usually associates with relaxation. It’s relaxing because it takes away from all of the noise of our life: it takes us away from televisions and satellite radio and iPads and computer games and all the buzz and hum and distraction that goes along with those things. It takes us away to somewhere where we can be by ourselves, with each other, with nothing to distract us from each other but the lap of waves and the music of the wind through the trees and the brightness of the stars. And also mosquitoes, but you can swat those.

I’ve written before about how reluctant I am to let go of certain technological luxuries when we do these trips, and that reluctance still holds. But these technologies are few, and they’re not distracting (some would argue this point, but still); I embrace giving up the devices that vibrate and buzz, the devices that demand my full attention, the devices that pull me out of the here and now and hold me in the there and then. I love not feeling pressure to check my email, or being tempted to play Angry Birds. I love having a break from all of that. Having a break from all of that is relaxing.

Even Jasper clutches at my hair and Emilia shrieks about deer flies all the while and we struggle to keep them from dashing off into the woods or jumping out of the canoe. It’s a different order of relaxation. And it is good.