Cabin for the Weekend

For one of our Summer of Fun 2024 adventures, we stayed in a small cabin in West Tennessee. Here’s a look!

The front porch light gave off a welcoming glow, and there was a fire watchtower in the background. And the moon, too.

Now for the backstory. In the spring, Laura and I attended the Taste and Tunes fundraiser for Harding Academy. They gave away prizes, and one of the prizes was a 2-night stay at Serendipity near Brownsville, Tennessee. And we won the drawing! So we picked a time that worked for us, which ended up being in early August. We had a nice, small cabin to ourselves, and it was good.

Serendipity is mainly a campground, although it has some yurts and four cabins, too. We opted for a cabin, which was perfect for the two of us. I don’t think a yurt would have been our thing.

And if you are wondering about the inside of the cabin, I have a couple of photos of that, too.

Downstairs was a bed, with the bathroom to the left. Ignore the partially-made bed - that was on us, not them. The kitchenette was in front of the bathroom, and I was standing in the seating area when I took this photo. It was cozy, and it would be to your advantage to be on good terms with whoever you are sharing the cabin with, because there isn’t much privacy! But again, it was fine for the two of us.

And if you climb the ladder in the previous photo, you get to a loft bed. We climbed up to check out the view from up there, but we decided that sleeping on the lower level would suit us just fine. That is a steep ladder if you have to come down it in the dark of night, after all.

We enjoyed being out in nature, walked along the trails, swam in the pool, went into town to eat each night, and enjoyed not having any responsibilities for a couple of days.

Getting Away From It All

It is nice to go to a secluded place and get away from it all. You can ignore responsibilities while just sitting and watching the birds and the trees. You can have some quiet time to talk to each other without all of the regular noise. You can wake up with the sunrise (or close your eyes and go back to sleep), and you can go to bed at sunset (or stay up late playing a board game). And then on Friday afternoon the weekend campers come in, and you don’t quite feel as much away from it all.

That was our experience, although the Friday campers did not upset us too much, because we were still on our own enough to do our own thing. But then on Saturday afternoon we went home because our time there was up, and we were really not away from it all anymore.

But that was okay, because we all have a purpose. It is nice to take a break from that purpose sometimes, but you can’t stay like that forever. We need other people, and other people need us.

We are told repeatedly in the Bible to love one another. And it is difficult to love one another if we are not around one another. Yes, you can contribute money to something online, but that is just one very limited form of love. To actually love others, we have to be around others, finding out their needs, being involved in their lives.

There is nothing wrong with taking a break sometimes, but be sure to live out your purpose of loving each other anytime that you can, in any way that you can.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. - Galatians 6:9-10

About the Photos

I had put my tripod in the car, but I ended up not using it for the night photo. It was just getting dark, and there was still a little bit of light out. Plus, I opened wide the aperture of the 35mm prime lens to let in as much light as possible.¹ And I kept the prime lens on the camera for the interior photos, although a wider angle might have been a little better.

And I specifically took the first photo from that angle, not to get the moon, but to get the fire tower in the background. The moon was a nice bonus. Towers like that interest me - see this one at Big Hill Pond State Park and this one at Natchez Trace State Park for some other examples.

Photo: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Raw Therapee and GIMP.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Rokinon 35mm f/1.8
Date: August 8-10, 2024
Location: Serendipity, Brownsville, Tennessee