Summer 2020

GONE CAMPING
with Aimee Amparo, Joshua Icban, and Wilfred Galila

Photos by Wilfred Galila and Joshua Icban.

It has been an unbelievable time to be alive these past six months. With the arrival of COVID-19 revealing to all a world that is overdue for a restorative re-modeling, it was a full delight to have the privilege to take a trip to through the prized, golden-hued lands of California and share the presence of its majesty with good friends for a few days. Sharing meals and stories around a campfire is still as valid as it ever was. Being in the realm of nature allowed me to be away from the usual doom scrolling, paranoia affirming hole that has been easy to find as of late. I was reminded that nature operates and evolves functionally, and this is a point in time where, collectively and individually, we are deciding what deserves to be kept and what needs to be thrown away.

- Joshua Icban

The threat of a summer lost spent indoors in isolation loomed at the end of spring. But after months of mostly staying at home and what we know, so far, about the virus, I became more comfortable with the relative safety of spending some time out in nature with selected friends.

It was a trip that we all needed. Reconnecting with the restorative power of nature and reaffirming friendship was healing and transformative. It also provided some sense of normalcy in our current times.

Basking on a rock in the creek, Aimee spotted discarded shells of molting dragonflies that prompted a chat about metamorphosis and the inevitability and constancy of cycles of change that we undergo in a lifetime: Pain and discomfort is a crucial part of the process of change and transformation. Pain is an indication of growth, of expansion, and that change is at hand. It is a sensation that says that what was once comfortable has eventually become confining, and that the time has come to shed and discard the source of this pain in order to move forward transformed and ready for the next stage in life.

- Wilfred Galila