Be Still

Five Minute Friday Writing Prompt: Still.

Be still, and know that I AM GOD.

What does it mean to be still?

Every year at Varsity Camp, the campers are challenged with this question. We are encouraged to find a time to be still and quiet before the Lord, without distraction of friends, food, or other activities, and just listen. At some time during the week we break after chapel, and without speaking, we all scatter around camp, for a time of silence and solitude. Usually we are given 45 minutes or so to dedicate to being still.

I live for these short moments.

After being released from the chapel I make a bee-line for my cabin, grab my towel, and with my Bible and journal in hand, I all but run down the Bear Trail out to the Back 40, across the Angle Ball field, and through the break in the trees onto the trail for the Disc Golf course. I pass the first tee off point, pass the basket for hole one, down the hill, through the narrow, sandy path, until finally I find my resting place. My refuge within my refuge. The second tee off point.

The disc golf course is built right into the woods, the paths naturally bend and curve to the flow of the forest, over hills, through weed covered fields, marsh, grass and sand. It’s like secret world, when I’m back there, I can forget the hard things, I can breath, I can be still.

I check my watch to see how many precious, silent moments are left, then I lay out my towel on the sandy floor. This tee off point is in the perfect location, in front of me starts the short board walk over the marshy field, with hole two on a hill in the distance. Behind me and on my right and left are trees, shading me from the hot sun, yet filtering through it’s golden light.

I lay my head down on my Jacobs rock. In the front, right corner of the wood framed square of sand, is a medium sized rock, with a gentle curve just right to cradle my head. It reminds me of the rock Jacob laid down on in the Old Testament.

I lie there and feel the sunshine warm me. I ease my breathing and relax my body. Peace fills me.

Bugs try to bother me, ants crawling on my arms, flies buzzing around and around my head, but I ignore their annoyances, and thank God for their existence. I thank Him for everything I see, gentle whispers of thanks.

When I’m out there, I am reminded that He is God. That’s something I forget in the noise. The noise of sound, the noise of responsibilities, the noise of my possessions. I forget.

Sometimes we just need to find a place to leave behind the noise, and just meet God with empty hands and open hearts. A place where we can silence our thoughts and hear His still, small voice.

Be still, and know that I Am God.

(This post was inspired by a woman who challenges writers to “Write for 5 minutes flat with no editing, tweaking or self critiquing.” She gives a word every Friday. I realize that this is Saturday, and it did take me longer then five minutes to write this, but, oh well.
Also, to you camp people who may read this, next silence and solitude when I'm actually at Camp, please don’t steal my spot!)

Tomato Hearts and Train Rides (Lowville, NY: Sunday & Monday)

Sunday, my final day.

We woke bright and early and went to church, I love experiencing other people’s churches, it gives so much insight to who they are by seeing how their church family has influenced their life. as this was the end of my week, I already knew that Meg has been deeply impacted by her church family, and she in turn impacts them. After the service was over Meg had so many people to talk to, it made me glad to see her running around greeting the old and young alike. :-)

After we got home, we decided to pop in a movie. We’d wanted to watch Sense and Sensibility together, so we decided on that. However, I passed out asleep before we even met Colonel Brandon, and Meg fell asleep soon after, and we both slept right through until the wedding bells rang at the end!

By that time it was getting closer to dinnertime. We had been hoping to get together with a bunch of people for some Ultimate Frisbee followed by a bon fire, but since not many people could make it, we were reduced to me, Meg and Dan, with Auggie and their other friend Tyler.

Auggie and Meg got busy bustling around the kitchen making pizzas, with me and the boys looking on (I offered to help, but they had everything down to such a system, having done this together multiple times, that my assistance was unneeded). So I was deemed official documenter of the cooking.

Though I did amuse myself by chopping up the tops of the tomatoes into tiny pieces, then molding them into an “M” (for Meg) then bringing the bottom together to form a heart. Though then I made the mistake of teasing her by calling her by a nick-name I know bugs her, (which I wont mention here ;-) so I had to sit on her to make her take a picture of my “gift”. :-)

Then I did the same with the tomatoes to form an “A” for Auggie, and turned it into a heart. Then the guys got jealous, so I did the same for a “D” and a “T”.

By this time the pizza’s were ready, so we grabbed our slices (which were wonderfully delicious!) and sat down for another movie. This time the feature was Father of the Bride 2 (the one when both the daughter and mother are pregnant at the same time). It was great fun, us girls talking about being pregnant someday, and the guys talking about how they were so glad they wouldn't be pregnant one day.

After the movie we returned to the kitchen, where Auggie made us root beer floats. Then we hung out until Auggie and Tyler called it a night, after which I was forced to pack and prepair for my departure.

Monday morning came too soon. My phone began to chime too loudly at 5:30. I punched it off and groaned, then rolled over and looked out the window. The guest room faces the east, and I was greeted with a bright, cherry and golden sunrise, as the clouds danced to welcome in the new day. That made it easier to get out of bed.

All too soon, Meg and I were loading my stuff into the truck and hitting the road for the hour or so ride to the train station.

As we got near to the station, we got a little lost, so Meg pulled over into a gas station for directions. Turns out there was a cab driver there who was going to the train station to pick someone up, so he offered to let us follow him! Well ok then. :-)

Shortly, we pulled into the station, and it was time to say goodbye to my dear friend. I gave her a hug and promised to text her to let her know I got to the next station alright, then I hefted my two back packs and my lap top bag and headed into the station.

I’d never ridden a train before, and the first stop was easier then I thought it would be, just bet my ticket, and sit outside and wait for the train to come. It was the Penn station in New York City, where I switched trains and had a two hour layover that I found difficulty.

When we were finalizing our plans of me riding the train a few months ago, Meg had said “I’m kind of jealous, I’ve never ridden a train, but it seems like it’d be romantic.” However, when I texted her to let her know I’d made it, I said “note to self, Penn station is anything but romantic! But I found a Tim Hortins here, so I’m happy.” The place was chaos in a bottle! People everywhere, all with multiple pieces of luggage, going everywhere and nowhere. There was nowhere to sit except the floor, and nothing you could do about your luggage but haul it around wherever you went (which made the line in the bathroom interesting). I had two backpacks with me, one very large one with all my clothes (because I was unable to find a duffle when I was packing), and another smaller one, in which I had managed to fit a gallon container of maple syrup given to me by Meg's mom (which I had to get home, it’s my moms favorite! But goodness was it heavy!) Plus my laptop bag which had my less then small laptop, and rather clunky camera! Another note to self, I will never again travel by train or plane without first investing in a suitcase on wheels.

But as I was wondering around, trying to find some floor where I could wait while keeping an eye out on the departures board to be notified what track my train would load from (because they didn’t tell you until about five minutes before departure!) I walked past a Tim Hortins! Ok, Timmy’s is my favorite coffee place, their iced capps are my number one stress food, and they don’t have them in Maryland. I stood looking at the shop for a second, thinking if it was worth it, since I knew it’d be more expensive here. But then I decided it was worth it. So I plunked my money down and found peace in a cup (though I have to admit, it was the worst iced cap I’ve ever had, just not the same quality. But it still did its job.) Then I sat myself down in view of the boards, and waited, taking in the view and watching the people.

Finally, the track was announced and I joined the throng of passengers as we shuffled down the stairs and to the platform.

On the train I found a window seat, and got settled in. I opened my laptop and popped in my favorite Disney movie, Tangled, and watched New York slip away.

Two hours later the Aberdeen stop was announced, and I shuffled off the train into good old Maryland humidity.

My grand trip was over, I had such a wonderful and relaxing time with Meg and her friends and family. I loved not only seeing Meg's life from her eyes, but living it as well! There’s so much I learned about her that I never could have known without seeing her home. And it was wonderful to be able to put faces to the names she’s talked about. And to be called “Shley” not only by friends, but by strangers and adults!

Thank you Meg, for so many smiles and memories, I will cherish them always.

Ok, your turn! When are you coming to stay a week with me after I get back to Michigan? :-)

Ferris Wheels and Photo Shoots (Lowville, NY: Saturday)

Both Meg and I enjoy photography. One of our fondest memories at FLI was a photo adventure six of us students took to Bishops Castle. So, it was in the plans that some time that week, we have a photo shoot session around Meg's property. So, we got up early Saturday morning (early to avoid the heat and humidity as much as we could) and made ourselves pretty, armed ourselves with our cameras and headed out. A few hours and a couple hundred pictures later, we headed back in to load our spoils.

After that we headed back for the last day at the fair. We watched Dan show a few times, then we headed to the pavilion to see if Meg's friend Auggie was working at her family’s booth. The corner of the pavilion was completely taken over by Auggie’s family. They had a wonderful set up, a couple of fans and a couch, I think they had more people just hanging out and keeping cool then actual business! It was fun.

After we’d spent quite awhile collapsed on the couch in front of the fan, we finally pulled ourselves up to venture out again. The first day Meg had pointed out that they had maple flavored cotton candy, and I’d been wanting some all week. So we went out and I got my sugar, then Auggie and I shared it. it was good! (of course, sugar and me? yes!)

Over the course of the day, Auggie and I discovered that Meg had never ridden a Ferris wheel, so we convinced (slash, forced) her to go with us. Just as the sun was setting we bought our tickets and climbed on board, Lowville from the sky is beautiful!

We had a blast riding around and around, snapping pictures and laughing. All too soon the ride began to slow as we reached the bottom, with sad faces we turned to watch the opporator come within view. But just as we reached the bottom he asked us “would you like a double ride?” as if he had to ask!

After we hopped off the Ferris wheel, thanking the operator, we headed out to explore the fair grounds one last time, with some impromptu photo shooting.

Soon we wondered around a corner and what did I see but a stage with plastic robotic vegetables singing to a row of empty benches! I excitedly ran up and sat myself down on the bench, swaying back and forth to the music. Auggie joined me and we both pulled out our cell phones and waved our lighted screens in the air. All too soon the music stopped and the curtain was drawn. Distraught I looked to Meg, “aw! It’s over already!?” but she assured me not to worry, it would be back in 90 seconds!

So we waited, and waited, and finally the curtain went up and the vegetables started singing about the garden ABC’s once again! I grabbed Meg and Auggie and we danced to the music (much to the amusement of a group of teens gathered near by. When the curtain fell again, we gigglingly grabbed our stuff and headed out.

But the night was not over! We found out that Auggie’s family was getting together to get to know her brothers new girl friend, and if Meg and I wanted, we could tag along. So we did. We talked about baby names and heard the couple’s story from the girlfriend’s point of view, and just had a lot of fun.

Finally, after a long day of laughs and good memories, we headed home.

Making Faces At Famous People (Lowville, NY: Thursday & Friday)

Thursday we woke to the smell of bacon (REAL bacon as Meg informed me, fresh from their very own pigs!) we moseyed on downstairs where we joined Meg's mom and cousin for breakfast on the large wrap around porch. Be jealous! Not only did we have fresh, home grown bacon, but we also had Johnny Cake drizzled with fresh maple syrup tapped from the trees on their property! Mm, mm!

Then we went back to the fair and watched Meg's brother show his draft horses, after which we headed out to clean the church.

So several months ago, when we started making plans for this trip, I kept going back and forth on the decision to come, due to the expense of coming back. With some researching Meg found what it would cost to come back by train, a price that was just over what I would want to spend. So things were looking grim, when Meg suggested we raise a bit of money while I'm here! She has a job cleaning her church every week, so she said that if I were to help her with that, we could use the money made there to help pay my ticket! So, we found refuge in the nice, cool church and we wiped down, swept up straightened and vacuumed. Though we didn’t think it made much sense to actually work to get the money, since why would I want to leave anyways?? :-)

After we got the church cleaned in record time, we came back and took a trip on the four-wheeler out to the sugar bush, the part of the woods where they tap for sap and make delicious maple syrup!

Then, to end the hottest of days, we went to the home of Meg’s pastor and I met three of their five girls, and their days old little baby boy. After cooing over the newborn (and he was worth much cooing!) Meg, her mom and I took the three little girls for a walk into town to an old-fashioned ice cream parlor. The girls chatted all the time and promptly stole my heart (I think they would fit in my suit case…). We ate our ice cream then headed back. The walk back had the girls getting slower and more tired, but Meg and I “flew” the youngest across all the streets, and Meg’s mom skipped with the older two to keep everyone having fun.

When we got back to their house, we hung out, talking to their mommy with some more admiring of the little man, the oldest of the three brought me upstairs to show me her room, and the youngest sat with me while we watched some kids show, counting and learning colors.

I had such a wonderful time; I think I could fit them all in my suitcase, couldn’t I?

Friday had us making the final profit for my train ticket home. We rinsed out several garbage bags full of pop cans and bottles, and then we loaded up about ten bags and heaved them into Wal-Mart. We set up camp in front of the return machines, getting into a sticky system: grab bottle, place in hole, wait, repeat. We made enough off of the returns to finish up the bill of my ticket! (was that a good thing?)

Next, what do we do but head back to the fair! Meg works at the library in Lowville, so she knows people who know people who know people, and those people just happened to have backstage passes to meet Josh Thompson that night before his concert at the fair. (though, of course, neither of us knew who Josh Thompson was, or if we should be excited to meet him or not. But hey, free backstage pass to meet someone whose supposedly famous? Ok!)

So we joined the library employees, and Meg talked her brother Dan into joining us, and we went to wait next to Josh Thompson’s bus. While we were waiting, we were asked to just let their official photographer take pictures, rather then wait for everyone to take pictures with their personal cameras. They would post the pictures online where we could download them later. Since we had no special reason to be impressed by meeting this guy, I talked Meg and Dan into agreeing to make a face in the picture. “He wont even know!” I told them, “Yeah,” Meg retorted, “but his photographer will!” Be that as it may, when it was our turn to go stand next to this slightly famous country singer, we said “hello” and turned toward the camera, and all made a face. The photographer, who had been looking pretty bored up to this point, started laughing “that is awesome!” he said. Josh Thompson looked surprised and confused, “what?” he kept asking, “What happened??” his photographer assured him he’d show him later, and we all walked off, high fiveing each other that we would be remembered.

The rest of the concert we spent on the bleachers next to the stage (facing the grandstand) we had way more fun people watching the audience then we did watching the show, we also enjoyed poking fun at the rock-star-wanna-be bass guitar player (dude, skinny jeans and cow boy boots? Really?)

After the concert was over, Meg and I made a quick trip to see the polka band, and remember with fondness the short polka lesson one of our Focus classmates gave us.

Coffee and Rag Curls (Lowville, NY: Wednesday)

Yesterday had us waking up early (6:30am) to head out for coffee and waffles. Every week, Meg meets with a handful of women on Wednesday mornings, and they just fellowship and encourage each other for a few hours. What a lovely way to bring in the morning! And what a blessing to have such a great group of women in your life to mentor and encourage you!

From there we went immediately back to the fair grounds. There we hung out in the stands, watching Meg's brother Dan as he showed his horses, and we walked around a bit more, getting some cream cheese and cracker samples from the Kraft tent for a snack (apparently Kraft has a big factory in the area).

Around lunch time we headed home and made up some food, then we discussed what to do next. We both agreed that the best thing we needed was a nap, so we brought our books outside, and Meg settled into the chaise of the porch, while I crawled into the hammock in the front, and we each read for a few minutes before dozing off. We’d planned on an hour and a half nap, three and a half hours later as woke up. It was lovely.

By then it was dinnertime, so we helped Meg’s mom prepare dinner, then gathered around the table. During the meal, Meg and her dad started sharing stories of their many miraculous adventures during their multiple missions trips to the Ukraine. We sat there for a couple hours listening as Meg and her dad remembered story after story, with an occasional comment from her mom. It was wonderful to hear the incredible ways God used them and the people they were with to spread His story! I could have listened all night, but around ten we finally cleaned up the table.

A few weeks ago, when we were talking about me coming to visit, Meg asked me if she could try putting my hair in rag curls, so last night we did that, and while we were at it we watched Tangled, (which we had seen together in theaters on opening day while we were in Colorado). Despite my long nap, I was dozing during the movie, and shortly after the ending credits I collapsed into bed and slept beautifully!

(Meg and Me...like my dress? :-)

Girl From the Suburbs Goes To The County Fair (Lowville, Ny: Tuesday)

I would call myself a country girl at heart, though I didn’t grow up in the country (I just wish I did) but I’m not a city girl either (by no means!) I fall somewhere in between, the neither here nor there, the suburbs.

This past weekend one of my FLI classmates got married, the wedding was about two hours away from my house, so afterwards a bunch of the fellow FLI-ers came back to spend the weekend. We did everything we loved, shared deep philosophical discussions, light hearted joking, watched movies, and just enjoyed each others company.

All too soon it was time for everyone to leave. We said our “see ya later”’s and ended our time with prayer and a song of Holy, Holy, Holy.

But my time with some of these friends wasn’t over yet! I joined Meg and Katie in Katie's car and we made to drive to New York State. We spent the night at Katie's lovely apartment, met some of her friends and hung out. The next morning Meg and I loaded up the van, said goodbye to Katie, and set out for the final part of our journey.

No sooner had we hit the road, than we passed a small park. “Do you want to stop and swing?” Meg asked me. As if she needed to ask!

After our short adventure we once again were on the road, with one last stop at the mall so I could buy some new Teva sandals…and of course I ride on the carousel!

Then we finally arrived in Lowville New York! I watched out the window as we passed through the rolling hills covered in beautiful farmland. Hundreds of windmills dotted the landscape, waving hello.

We didn’t go straight to Meg’s house, rather we detoured to the library where she works (an adorable establishment!) then on to the county fair! Meg had told me so much about the fair, I was excited to be able to be there to see it!

We got there and went directly to the horse track, where we met up with Meg’s mom and brother, and then were spotted by a group of Meg's friends, and thus the whirlwind of introductions Meg was warning me about began!

We watched harness racing for a bit (something I’d never seen before) then decided to make a quick trip to the house to unload before the parade that night.

Note to self, I love this house! It’s a classic farmhouse, in the shade of many large trees, inside is just the right size (not too big, not too small) with many windows to let in the sunshine. Meg took me on a tour, showing me how the personalities and interests of her and her brothers are displayed so well in the way they decorate their rooms.

After a bit we headed back to the fair. We walked around a little, and hung out on the blanket spread in “their spot” and waited for the parade to start, marking the first day of the Lewis County Fair. Meg had bragged that the parade was “the best in the world”, and I was not disappointed. True, it was not Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, but I found so much more excitement and joy in the small, yet very long precession of tractors and pick up trucks, wagons and home made floats. As the different displays passed by, Meg and her friends and family gathered around would share stories of past parades, and they waved to and pointed out friends as they passed by.

After the long precession ended, we relocated to the football field in the middle of the tack where I was again introduced to many faces (sorry people if I don’t remember your name!) then we settled in for the show. It was a great fireworks show, the field was full of “oo!”s and “ahh!”s at all the proper times.

After the show, we headed back home, tired and ready for sleep. But I was excited to see what else this trip to the country would bring me, and I was refreshed by the small town community I was able to experience through the life of my friend.

Girl Camp 2011: The Story

Psalm 145:7

“everyone will share the story of Your wonderful goodness, they will sing with joy about Your righteousness.”

Last week was my week at home. After months that seemed like years I was finally at Camp! I was all geared up and ready to begin my seventh year counseling Girls Camp. This year the theme was “The Story”, each day we added another chapter to the story God had written in His word, and learned how to apply it to the stories He is writing for us.

Ok, ready for this? This is another one of those annoying posts when I’m all over the place and put in way more detail than I’m sure you care to sift through. But, if you know me at all, you know what to do (if not, please reacquaint yourself with the disclaimer in the “this is me” column to the right :-)

Cabin: Moose Lodge

This year I was co-counseling in Moose Lodge, which was one of the older cabins. I’m always a little apprehensive to be in this cabin, since the girls are older a lot of times I find it harder to reach out to them because they are with their friends all week, or they “know everything” already, or simply, they can act much more mature than me (sad, but true). But I was so blessed with this gaggle of girls! They were each so sweet and fun, and we had many a laugh.

My co-counselor was Sarah, coincidentally, when I was nine years old, and attending camp for the very first time, Sarah was my counselor! I was very bad that year, as were my friends, and we nearly drove Sarah insane (something I didn’t know till years later, I always remembered Sarah as one of my favorite counselors, and she has always been one of the counselors I try to imitate in my own counseling career!) so, it was very exciting to be counseling with her this year, and we had many stories to share with our girls of that terrible first year of camp :-)

Activity: Jump Ropes

Of course, what else? I think this was my fourth year working with the jump ropes, but this was my first year teaching it alone! I had helpers of course; basically I just needed someone with arms to swing the ropes. We had a great couple of classes (morning and afternoon). Our day would begin with stretches, which I quickly designated the responsibility over to Brittany, who helped me in the afternoon class. She was able to bring the energy required and make the stretches unique and fun. Then we would do our “endurances”, the girls would skip for two minutes to see how many jumps they could get, then we would do our “no skips” when the girls would see how many jumps they could get without tripping on their ropes. We kept track of each day to see how they improved.

Next we would move on and do a little bit with the single ropes, but the girls (and I) were anxious to get to the fun stuff: long rope, double dutch, egg beater, etc.

We had a rule on the jump rope court: the word “cant” was not allowed. The first day I wrote the word “cant” on the concreat and told them that if they said that word, I would banish them off the court, because I would hear none of it, and if they did use that word, they had to add two o’s to the end, I would write two o’s to the end of the word “cant” making it become “can too”. During the week, whenever a girl let “I cant do it” slip out, I would say “what was that you said?” and her eyes would get big and she’d say “I can too! Can too! Can too!” and they were extra watchful for when I would utter the forbidden word: “I can’t jump more then one jump in double dutch myself…” “You said cant! You said cant!” “Ok, I mean, it’s very hard for me, since I don’t have much practice.” :-)

We also had a tradition of saying hi to any staff member that passed. Since the court where we jumped was situated just between the kitchen, the staff dorms and the road, we could keep ourselves quite busy saying hello. Whenever we say a staff member passing by, we’d say “ok, lets say hi to Cora. One, two, three, HI CORA!” I did that because I wanted the girls to be familiar with who the staff is, and I think it worked :-)

Chapel:

Oooh chapel. Jon and Andrea are the couple who both lead the worship as well as do the teaching, and they are pretty much wonderful. Each service we began with counting down the minutes to start, followed by a morning stretch, and then the youtube dance “Double Dream Hands” (which was followed by the sequel “Double Dream Feet” later on in the week. Then we’d have an appearance of Andy Lovehandles (which was Jon dressed up) and a short game show segment where the girls answered ridiculous questions about celebrities. Then we’d get into our songs, which included everything from the beloved Boogaloo, to worship hymns, followed by a recitation of the Shma, then the teaching. As I said, the theme was “The Story”, and Jon and Andrea took us through an exciting and insightful journey starting from creation and ending with Jesus. So many times I found myself frantically scribbling notes, not so I could strike up conversation with the girls during devos, but because I was so impacted by the teaching!

Theme Dinners:

And of course, what's Girls Camp without your themed dinners?? This year we had our fill.

Pick Yer Color night was a monochromatic theme, everyone was to try to dress (as much as she could) in a single color. I was blue (because I was easy) and we even got our girls to line up in rainbow order for dinner (with me and Sarah in our proper places as well!)

There was also Stadium Night. The girls were to dress in sports jerseys or team spirit garb. Not being much of a sports fan, I wore my team shirt from Varsity camp (Go Hulk!) but I was sporting a rockin’ sweat band I’d found in the Pine Post! The staff was amazing this night! Walking around with cardboard vendor boxes slung around their necks calling “hot dogs, geeet your hot dogs!”

Crazy Hair Night!! My favorite! When I was born, God know that I would one day be a counselor, and He gave me the wonderful gift of built in, natural crazy hair! Shortly before dinner, I did something I only do about once a year, and that’s to brush my hair. And it got BIG! Some days I have a hard time dealing with my hair, but on crazy hair night, I’m in love with it! All the girls got into the night as well, you’ve never seen so many crooked pony tails, multicolored heads, or gelled up spikes!

Characters Welcome Dinner. Since the theme was “The Story”, the final dinner was character themed. The girls were to dress up as their favorite book, movie or video game character. I was SO excited, a few weeks before camp I found a bolt of fabric at JoAnnes, one of those ready made skirts where you just add the seam. And it was Fancy Nancy! My number one all time favorite children's book character and my hero! So I was all set to dress like her, with the skirt, some sequencey sparkly bows, a feather boa, and a shirt I had ironed on a bunch of jewels. Then, the night before we left I remembered, I was flying home early to attend a friends wedding, and would be in the air during the dinner!!! I was devastated! But I decided, whatever, I could still be Fancy Nancy, so on Friday morning I went to breakfast, feather boa and sparkly bows and all! And I wore my skirt all day, even during jump ropes! I was sad to miss the dinner though; I was excited to see all the characters. But my sister assured me that she’d gotten many pictures, so I can’t wait to see them!

This And That’s:

Ok, here’s the fun part, all the random little stories that may or may not make sense. Just the snippets of the week that make me smile :-)

The first day was the swim test. Last year I had swum out to the raft and hung out there to encourage the girls as the treaded water. This year I decided to do the same (despite the cold, coldness) I swam out with the first group, feigning indifference to the cold. I let the girls swim ahead of me a little bit, so that they wouldn't see me walk till the water reached my nose, then doggy paddle or swim on my back the rest of the way to the raft. Upon reaching the raft I climbed up and joined Matt and Tyler, the lifeguard and AO on duty, and chatted with the girls during the five minutes of treading. I hung out there as the first group swam away and watched and helped direct the second group swim in and around the raft. If any girls didn’t make it to the raft and had to be towed in by a lifeguard, I chatted with them while we waited for them to be picked up by the p-boat and brought back to shore. With every other group I’d swim back to the yellow area, then swim back out to the raft again with the next group. I think I ended up swimming out with about seven groups or so, which means I swam the distance between the raft and the yellow area about fourteen times. Meaning I had probably swam the equality of the length of the lake! (though of course, I would die if I actually tried, since I wouldn't have ten minute breaks in between!) and I think I more then earned my blue swim band (well, since I doggy paddled/back swam and didn’t tread, maybe not :-) but it was a good exercise, and I love doing that, since I know many of the girls already, I was able to give a name to the lifeguards when they were asking the girls if they were doing ok or needed help, and I was also able to get to know the girls I didn’t already know, especially when they would wait on the raft if they didn’t make it.

The second to last group to go held a few of my girls who’d made me promise to swim out with them for moral support. They weren’t too sure about the cold water, but I told them that we were arctic explorers, swimming out to explore this chunk of ice and observe the penguins! The deal was, the girls would swim out to the “ice” (the raft) and I would explore the ice for five minutes while they observed (aka, treaded water) then we would swim back. So we got out there, and I climbed up and told Matt and Tyler that we were arctic explorers here to observe the penguins, to which Matt informed me that “there are no penguins in the arctic, but there are polar bears.” “Ok”, I said, “then can you be polar bears?” “Sure,” he said. Then thought for a minute… “Wait - we’re the polar bears!?!” needless to say, the polar bears weren’t very active that day.

On the day of the swim test, I promised two of my girls that if they got blue bands, then I would attempt to take them out sailing. They did it! (though I had to heavily encourage one to keep on treading :-) so on Monday we bathing suited up, joined by another of my girls and Brittany, and we headed down to the beach, stood in line waiting for the lifeguards to start letting us peg in, got all our equipment (life jackets, rudders, center boards, kayak paddle for Amy) and headed into the water where we stood for about a half hour while I tried to figure out / remember how to set up first one sail boat then the other. FINALLY I had both boats set up, and was just untying them from the buoy’s ready to set sail, when Sarah came running up. “Are you coming or going!?” she asked, “we’re just not going” I told her. “well come back in, we have zip line today, I just found out and we only have ten minutes to get out there!” so, what took a half hour to set up, I pulled back down in five. We rushed out to the zip line with as many girls as we could find (we missed one :-( with plans of returning to the sails the next day. Of course the following day ended out sweltering hot phase and in swept the cold! We never did get back out, sadly.

On one of the days when it was still VERY hot, we were trying to encourage the girls to drink more water and stay hydrated. The girls at my table were chugging the pitcher of water, and somehow we began trying to drink more and more. At one point, Cora passed by and told us that at JV the week before; she had refilled a boy’s cabins water pitcher five times. The competition was on…and we were going for SIX! We drove Shelby (our server that day) crazy! She started bringing us out two pitchers at a time, and we were chugging as much as we could. At the end of the meal we finally sipped the last of our sixth pitcher. That equals a full pitcher per person at the table. We congratulated each other, thanked Shelby…then headed for the bathroom.

Wednesday was supposed to be our day out. We were supposed to go to Au Train Beach, but due to the appearance of bad weather, it was decided that we would stay on home base and carry on as usual. But we still wanted to do something fun for dinner, so the staff quickly pulled out the cardboard cut outs of jungle animals used for the African safari at Family Camp last summer, and quickly transformed the Bear Trail into a jungle. Shortly before dinner was to start, I found Sarah sitting on a picnic table chatting with some of our girls. I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow we both started talking about the safari that was to come, only we were talking about the Malibu safari, and how we had to put on our hiking stilettos, and how we didn’t want to chip a nail. All with bratty, valley girl accents. This continued the rest of the night, we talked about how we were hoping to catch a pink alligator so we could have a pink alligator bag, and how we needed our sparkling mineral water, and (best of all!) the new diet we were trying: we weren’t vegetarians, we just couldn’t eat anything with a face, so we only ate fish (which of course don’t have faces) and Amish Faceless chicken. I think we got on the nerves of the staff juuust a little bit, but the girls seemed to love it :-) we finally put a stop to it when we pretended to leave and then acted like we had no clue what the girls were talking about :-)

Waking up campers is my morning coffee, it makes me energized and happy in the morning. Waking up the girls has always been one of my favorite things to do as a counselor (much of which I’d learned from Sarah my first year). since I am not a morning person, I find a sense of sweet revenge on my former counselors (ahem, Sarah) by waking up my own girls in the most obnoxious ways possible. However, due to the fact that my girls were older, they always requested that we wake them up at seven when we headed out to our counselor meeting, meaning that by the time we got back at eight (the normal time to wake up the campers) everyone was wide awake, showered, and ready for food. Tears! However, one day Sarah and I were late for the meeting (thanks to a rogue alarm clock situation) so we didn’t have a chance to wake the girls up before the meeting, which meant (mwahaha) they were all mine! (Sarah saved them for me, knowing I would enjoy the experience).

After the meeting I raced back to the cabin, and tip-toed into the counselors room, hooked my ipod up to my speakers, did a quick song search, turned up the volume and headed to the bunks of blissfully snoozing campers. I began blasting “Hello Sunshine” by BarlowGirl, singing along and too-happily announcing that it was morning! I went from bunk to bunk, rousing the girls and being just obnoxious. Most started to stir by the time I’d turned on the second morning song, “Sunshine Girl” (Britt Nicole) and I got many an evil glair as I shouted at the top of my lungs the line, “I CAN BE THE QUIET ONE!!” then whispered “or the life of the party.” But then, that wasn’t working for a few in the back room, so I decided desperate times called for desperate measures. So I left the room so I could scroll through my songs till I found the one I was looking for. Ah, there it was, I knew I’d struck gold. I clicked play, let the first notes ring through the cabin: “oh-oh-oh-oh-oh. Oh-oh-oh-whoa-whoa” then: “I know ya love me, I know ya care, just shout whenever, and I’ll be there. you want my love, you want my heart, and we will never, ever, ever be apart…” and before the Bieb’s could croon the words “baby, baby, baby oooooh!” the snoozing girls were out of their beds and across the cabin, begging me on their knees to turn it off! I had found my weapon.

The next morning, before doing anything else, I snuck up to Alex’s bunk (for she had been the loudest about her dislike for my morning tactics) I held my speakers to her unsuspecting ear, and clicked play. Justin Bieber is a wonderful alarm clock.

The girls later came to me with verses about joy and laughter saying they had found them for me, since I was so joyful to wake them up in the morning. (wasn’t quite sure how to take that).

The last day, I decided to get up at six to see the sunrise (my camp tradition). After my alarm went off I was laying in bed for just a minute before pulling myself out, when I heard an alarm go off somewhere else in the cabin. I thought it was odd, but it was soon turned off, so I didn’t give it a second thought, and I tip-toed out of the cabin.

Later that morning however, I was swarmed by the whole cabin, they were asking why I had to go and get up so early on my last morning! Turns out they’d had it all planed out to wake up at six, plug my speakers into Alyssa’s ipod, and wake me up to Taylor Swift in my ear! I’m almost sorry I missed it…almost.

Later that day, two of my girls got packages. The camp tradition is to sing for your package (a rule that’s become optional at Girls Camp). These girls were adamant they were not going to sing, but I convinced them, promising to sing with them. We got up in front of the dinning hall, and Alyssa invited everyone to sing along “since I’m sure you know the words.” And I announced that this was a song dedicated to “Moose Mornings.” And we launched into the chorus of “Baby”. Surprisingly we weren’t booed off, though I think the fact that the staff guys started singing along as the rattled the silverware baskets may have helped.

It was a wonderful week full of blessings, memories and adventures. I loved my girls, whether they were in my cabin or not, and God worked in my own life through them and others at the camp in so many ways that I cant even explain or hope to make sense of. So many of our devos I felt as if the girls were teaching me way more than I could hope to teach them, and they reminded me that the faith of a child is a beautiful thing, and how much I long to have that simple, innocent and lovely faith. The fire they had in their hearts to tell their friends and family the story of God was so inspiring and encouraging, they didn’t let fear get in the way, but were just hungry to know more. And as much as I can love on those girls every day, they turn around and love on me with such an unselfish, unjudged love. They teach me more then I’ll ever even know, and I’m thankful for every moment God gives me with them.

Dancing Through Life

Tonight I went dancing. I found a dancing hall not too far from me that offered what they call “Saturday Night Dance Parties”, each week beginning the night out with an hour long dance lesson in a different form of dance, followed by open floor dancing. I’d called several weeks ago to ask about it, and found out (as I suspected) it is a club made up of mostly elderly people, but of course youngers are welcome! So, this week when I saw that the theme was Swing, I decided to try it out.

I enjoyed it quite a lot! Yes, besides someone’s younger grandchildren I was the youngest in the place by at least twenty years, and yes, the music and dancing was expectedly on the slower level (which is not a bad thing for my two left feet!) but the atmosphere was so welcoming and enjoyable!

During the lesson time, as we switched partners every few minutes, I was able to become more comfortable with the other dancers, even talking the little nine year old boy into trying out a few steps with me! Then, the lesson ended, the lights were dimmed, and the real dancing began!

I retreated to my corner table, taking a drink of water, pretending to check my phone (ha! Who am I kidding? I never have any messages!) Thinking to myself “how long should I sit here smiling like a fool before I politely slip out?” Ya know, the usual wall flower routine. Having come alone I had no expectations of anyone dancing with me, but I didn’t want to just rush out!

However, I didn’t sit long before one of the older gentlemen asked me to dance. I warned him that I knew next to nothing, but he assured me he would show me. After that I never sat for long! As each new song began another gentleman would come up, ask me if I knew the step (of course I didn’t) and offered me his hand assuring me it wasn’t hard. (Well, not hard if you’ve got rhythm, something I seem to lack!) It was a delightful evening and I hope to talk someone into coming with me next time (so if your interested, lemme know!)

But, being there made me think of two things: first, how much I dearly miss FLI and the many, many dance parties we shared (where two or more are gathered there shall be dancing!) and second, how I love the way that dancing is a metaphor of life. When we first arrived for the lesson, the instructor asked us ladies a multiple choice question: if, at any point during the night, our partner is off beat, or stepping incorrectly, do we the ladies:

A: Slap him across the face and say, “that’s not right! Let me show you how it’s done!”

B: Gently say “Honey, don’t you hear the instructors voice in your head counting off? Do you need me to count out loud for you?”

C: Just follow his lead, whatever or wherever it may be.

Hmm, kind of like in life? If a mans dance partner is constantly pointing out his flaws in a negative way, do you think he’ll want to improve, or enjoy the dance? And if a woman keeps trying to take the lead by telling him what to do, she’ll miss out on the surprise spins and dips! There's nothing like a man who’s confident in his dance, and I’m glad that I’m a girl when it comes to dancing, because whether I know the steps of not doesn’t matter, if my partner is at least confident enough to lead (whether he knows the steps or not) then I have nothing to worry about. (Or, at least, much less to worry about!)

Now, basically, take the above paragraph and swap the words “dance” with “life”.

And that’s how I see life (and dancing, whichever :-)

This was the last time I've been Swing dancing, my FLI classmates, Dusten and Katie taught a bunch of us while we were out in Colorado...I had to be the man due to our small number of boys, but I couldnt help but have fun with such a lovely partner as Miss Bri! (and yeah, I am glowering at the camera :-)