Joy

Don’t let comparison steal your joy.

This has been on my mind a lot lately as our retreat season gets busier and busier and we start to step over into preparing for summer camp as well.

My job this summer is to be the assistant to our office registrar. I’m very excited about this job change and have been slowly transitioning into this role as summer gets closer. However, I still miss the craziness of retreats and feel like I’m a little on the outside the reach of that exploding piñata.

Don’t get me wrong, my introverted self is certainly enjoying my time in the office and I know I’ll have plenty of opportunities this summer to interact with campers and counselors.

And I’m letting the comparison of what I’m doing to what the rest of my team is doing get to me in a negative way. And it’s stealing my joy a little bit.

And I’m not the only one. Others on my team have compared job loads, hours, and responsibilities to one another and it’s draining us of our happiness.

One thing I’ve realized though is that we need to choose our joy. We get to be content in any situation because the Lord brought us there and what good is it to count your sorrows?

So, just remember this old hymn and know it is true even now.

“Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,

it is well, it is well with my soul.”

Happy Belated Easter!

  

For Easter this year I went with my friend Morgan to a Cowboy Church. I’d never even heard of such a thing, but there it was, this open-air arena fit for a rodeo, plastic chairs in the sand and bleachers to one side, saloon doors swinging open to the bathrooms.

We sang hymns like country singers would and then we experienced a more contemporary worship band (James Curlin Band) and soon after we were responding with “Amen!” to our animated African-American preacher.

It felt so jumbled and yet in each part of the service, the Lord was there. We all know He doesn’t fit into any sort of type, category, or box. He’s not found only in nature, only in church, only in our prayers in Bible studies. He’s everything and everywhere. He’s in our sadness when saying good-bye, He’s in our conversations and laughter with friends, He’s in our lazy moments by the pool. He’s alive now, for us, for always.

Morgan and I on our way to Easter Service.

Rain & Things

It’s been raining a lot here at camp lately and everything is such a lively green.

I will not even pretend that I can write about nature and this gorgeous earth with any sort of depth or intelligence. I’ll just let you read some Annie Dillard for yourself.

"The point of the dragonfly's terrible lip, the giant water bug, birdsong, or the beautiful dazzle and flash of sunlighted minnows, is not that it all fits together like clockwork--for it doesn't ... but that it all flows so freely wild, like the creek, that it all surges in such a free, finged tangle. Freedom is the world's water and weather, the world's nourishment freely given, its soil and sap: and the creator loves pizzazz."

Annie Dillard (b. 1945), U.S. essayist and autobiographer. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

This entire book is the best book about observing the natural world that I’ve read. You should too.

Happy Spring y'all!

(all images taken at Camp Cho-Yeh by yours truly)

Unlovable

We’re all unlovable at some point or other. We all get so tired we could cry, we could scream, we could drive recklessly, we could break plates. And we all experience others in this state. But here’s where we learn about loving people in their lowest.

Instead of responding to nasty sarcasm and rude comments with the same, I’ve tried to let that flash in the pan anger reside and respond with kindness.

“Kill ‘em with your kindness.”

The thing is Jesus was serious when he said to turn the other cheek. It’s so easy to let anger get the best of you, to let your selfish side flare like a frill neck lizard as you feel injustices go from a seed to a tree. It’s ok to let people know they have hurt you, but to respond with the same actions is just creating an endless funhouse mirror of bitterness.

Contrary to popular belief, showing kindness in the face of hate is not weak but rather a sign of strength, which the Lord gives when love seems to be the last thing we can do.

(via http://awelltraveledwoman.tumblr.com/)

Stuff Campers Say: Summer Camp Edition

This past weekend we had our first leadership weekend in order to brainstorm and plan for the upcoming summer. It made me reminisce about summers past at a little camp in Minnesota where the kids are just as honest and forthright as any.

So here we go with Stuff Campers Say…Summer Camp Style!

(To a camper who is devouring her chocolate cakes minus the use of her hands):
“That is the most unwomanly thing you could be doing right now.”

“I’m too cute to sweat.”

“Is anyone here armed in case of bear attacks?”

“There are so many campers that have unflattering pictures of me now.” “Oh yeah, I totally took one of you while you were sleeping with your mouth open.”

“You expect me to swim in a lake that has live animals in it?”

“Why does Ali eat the apple seeds?” “So she won’t die of cancer.” “Yeah, but she’s going to die of a tree growing in her stomach!”

Ali-the-apple-seed-eater and I at Big Sandy Camp, 2011.

Sweets & Retreats (When your day is a swear word)

I know it may seem that I have the perfect job and live a wonderfully carefree life but keep in mind that I usually write about the best parts of my life. In an effort to do what the cool kids call “keepin’ it real” I will try to be brave enough to write about even the bad stuff.

Because we all have those days when nothing is going right or well and we skim past the otherwise good moments because we feel as if another terrible one is waiting for us.

Food doesn’t have taste and you eat it just because you have to and a smile means nothing and even those arms of a friend wrapped around you sustain you for a second and then all is lost in another problem.

Everyone seems on the edge, on the brink of punching you in the face, over the tiniest comment or was it the tone of that comment? Either way something small can set you or someone around you off and the nail gun trigger is stuck and no one escapes unscathed.

Sometimes you just want to get through the day, none of this cherishing bull, none of this count your blessings when you’re in the midst of a crisis here, people.

Your retreat group wants to change their schedule, you got switched to running your least favourite activity of all-time, AND your campfire just won't light.

Sometimes your day is a swear word. Or it’s all of ‘em. And it’s ok to just get through because it’s all you can do. But don’t let those days define you. Do your best even when you don’t feel like it. Accept the goodness with the bad.  Because we all know those days pass.

So , let it pass. Find something to help it pass, like we did. We use the phrase, “sweets and retreats” to mean that everything sucks right now. Because sometimes it just does and there’s nothing you can do about it but know that it will pass and what will matter is how you acted in the midst of a horrible situation.

Just ask the good Lord to help you to laugh it all off with an inside joke shared with people stuck in the same trash pit as you are.  

Please, campfire? (via http://convolutedstateofmind.tumblr.com/)

Stuff Campers Say: First Edition

I recently had the privilege of counseling the youngest campers at our Mid-Winter Madness weekend. We call them the “Gummies,” since they stay in the Sweet Gum cabins. These little gumdrops brought such joy and simplicity and laughter into my weekend.

The best thing, for me, in counseling these kids is that they just love you and trust you without much question. It’s so easy to love them back because all it takes is a hug. Since I’m so introverted I find it much easier to let myself become a jungle gym and singer of silly songs than to have awkward conversations.

And when you get a gummie talking…you’ll soon find yourself laughing.

Here’s just a little round-up of stuff campers say, the very first edition.

“You’re whispering- that means you don’t know what to do.”

“I need a piggy back ride.”

“Boys rule and girls drool.” “Yeah? Well you’re going to have a wife someday!”

“Girls you need to brush your hair today because we have a picture at the lake today.” “But why don’t you have to brush your hair? It’s MUCH wilder than mine!”

“I found this candy on the ground but I washed it off. Can I eat it?”

(from http://awelltraveledwoman.tumblr.com/)