LIMITED ACCESS
Since the mid 90’s Joy and I and our family have been visiting this very special British Columbia Provincial Park annually. This is the comfortably familiar vista from our little beach at the Group Campsite. For those few days each year that we’ve been lucky enough to be able to reserve “our” campsite, this is the scene that greets me with my morning coffee. It’s the launch site from which we go canoeing, fishing, swimming, hiking and just happily gathering as a family. We have memories of this home away from home that go back all those years.
Our family includes fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters, wives and husbands, children and friends. Usually there are around 30 of us gathering at any given time. Kids who were only toddlers all those years ago, now bring their own kids. Many, too many, of our family and friends have passed. But this is the place where they are remembered each year. Our traditions at this special campsite live on every time we gather here. Most of all the sharing, the joy and laughter. No matter the weather, there’s always sharing, joy and laughter.
But now, with society’s newfound interest in camping and being out-of-doors, access to our very special place is reduced to a lottery of sorts. And as such, access to our special campsite has diminished. We’re not able to gather every year as we’d grown so accustomed to for almost 30 years. And so, this image called to me. I had to paint it as a testimony to our special place. Any family member or friend who’s enjoyed a time there with us will know this vantage point. They’ll immediately recognize this familiar place. They’ll feel that very special, warm and unique pang in their heart when they see it. We all long to be back there, and one day surely, we’ll win that lottery again.
Until then, we just have to share, and live with the reality that our very unique family gathering place has been found by others. We knew it all along, but now others do to. This campsite is so special that it now has “LIMITED ACCESS”.
Ed Hill, Artist