What have I agreed to……

 I don’t know exactly when I stopped going outside for fun.   Probably it was sometime in my 30’s.   Going outside was weeding gardens, shoveling the driveway, cleaning eaves, taking out garbage, in short, going outside was a chore, a punishment.  It was not fun.  I remember being so busy between shift work, babies, surviving a marriage, running a house, carpools, lunches, the list just goes on and on.  I didn’t have time to clean my house. How in the hell was I going to have time to connect with nature?   Oh sure we did the obligatory outside time with the kids.  But it was always so dirty, so much work, packing sunblock, hats, diapers, shoes, outfits, food, ugh, who has the energy for that?   Only to have a kid scream about a bug, or get a rash, and let's not forget the dirt, so.much.dirt.

Growing up we were forced to spend hours outside, rain snow sleet or hail we had to spend hours outside entertaining ourselves.   In fact if I were to actually think about it, almost all of my childhood memories are outside.  I had a great childhood by the way, I loved my childhood in fact.  My parents were huge in the great outdoors, camping with friends, boating, beaching, nature walks, tobogganing, picnics at the local conservation area.  And of course, Guiding and Scouting.  

Guiding is in my DNA, I think every woman in my family has been a “sister in Guiding”.  So naturally my sister and I were Girl Guides and my brother was a Boy Scout.   Of the three of us I am the one who has been the longest serving member.  From Brownies (now Embers) to Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers, Junior leader, Cub Leader, Sometimes Den Mother (back in the olden times), and now I proudly hold the title Coo Coo Ding Dong BIrd in my small town.   It’s through the acquisition of this title that caused me to meet my 2 best friends.   2 of the coolest cats around.  They are awesome.  Literally exactly the kind of women supporting women female friends I have been looking for my entire life.  

Spoiler alert they are also Girl Guides for life.   

There is only one problem with them.   They both LOVE the outdoors.   And, I have grown to not.  

It’s not that I don’t love mother earth.  I love her, I adore her.   She’s the reason we all exist.   She’s our provider.   But, like, she’s cra-cra.   Nature is wild, it’s ferocious, it’s violent, it’s hungry, and it’s scary.   Very scary.    

And of course the insects.   Well specifically the spiders.  I do not like spiders.   Just so we are clear, this isn’t like ohhhh I am uncomfortable. This is like an omg omg omg there's a spider and I am going to die-screaming-and-crying “event”.

Anyway, back to my crazy cool cat friends.  These two women accept me for all of the things that make me….unique.   They encourage me to push my boundaries without making me feel stupid or less than for being an indoor cat.  No, not even an indoor cat.  I am a scaredy cat.  I remember reading “Scaredy Squirrel” for some reason in a Guide meeting and thinking, huh this is me.  

Enter these two, they are constantly cheering me on, they don't ever get mad at me for getting overwhelmed or having an emotional moment (tears sooo many tears) after coming across some creepy crawler.   They never shame me for being me.   Quite opposite actually, they actively go out of their way to protect me from seeing things that would literally make me go home.   These women inspire me in so many ways.  They are #goals.

So yes.  Women friendships - super important.   But why are we here?   Well, here's the thing.  My co-guiders, my outdoor friends, my cool cats…..we have decided to challenge ourselves to visit all 115 of the Provincial Parks in Ontario.   I don’t know if you know this but, Ontario is HUGE.   No like it’s massive, bigger than the state of Texas.   Urban, farmland, rural, woods, wild, arctic circle.   HUGE. Over 1 million square kilometers folks.  And most of it is wild.  So. Many. Spiders.

I honestly don’t know how this is going to go down.  I hope we achieve our goal.  I hope we inspire others to get outside.   I hope we experience something in this province that changes each of us.  We decided to create this blog purely to have a living memory of our attempt.  I don’t know what will happen, but I do know, deep in my core, that no matter what, we will face this challenge together, with laughter, and love for each other, living life outside, where we belong.

~Indoor Cat