Saying hello... saying goodbye.

It is fall. It is time to say hello to beautiful leaves and amazing days outdoors in the cool autumn air. It is time for bonfires and campouts, retreats and cookie baking. It is time to enjoy rainy mornings in bed and playing outside with my wonder-pup, Nellie.

It is also time to say goodbye.... soon it will be much too cold for flip flops and the open sunroof (although I fully plan to fight on the flip flops until mid November at the earliest!!). It is also time to close up the ropes course for the season and put away my harness and ropes. BOOOOO!!! I spent an AWESOME day at camp Saturday... ok, so my flying squirrel group didn't show, but I did get to take a LONG hike through the trails at Whip Poor Will... on of my my long time favorite places to hike and camp... and I took some pictures...

So, hello to beautiful fall days, goodbye to another great season on the course(s). (OK, so I still have one or two more courses to facilitate this coming weekend, but it is supposed to be cold and rainy, so I am thinking I will mentally close out the season while the memories are so good!)

(This is a new unit I discovered that now stands where the old Nature cabin was... hmmm)















The trail once known as the "Peace Trail"... funny, I don't think I ever knew its ACTUAL name... it goes all the way from the pool out to Cedar Trails, without going through the Arboretum.














The cabin that is now where the Fernwood tent unit used to stand, which has a cute little side porch, but still a gross latrine!!

My little thoughts on Planet Earth...

This weekend I had an amazing conversation with my youth about global warming. Now, I have to admit that we usually don't have conversations on that topic. Yet, when you walk 10 k together on a BEAUTIFUL fall morning, it comes into the picture. Especially since here in Ohio the temperature has been well into the 90's until the middle of last week. (Not that my flip flop loving feet are complaining at all!!).

Anyway, we had quite a conversation about it... also in part because of Al Gore winning the Nobel Prize for his work just last week. What I realized over the course of conversation is that kids today are a lot more aware of global environment issues than they ever have been before. They know about global warming, they have read and watched "An Inconvenient Truth" (which is a truly disturbing movie if you haven't seen it), they know all about conservation and recycling. The part that bothers me... is I am not sure it bothers THEM.

At the youth house we try to be good stewards. We use regular plates, cups, and silverware for our meals together and wash them by hand when we are done. We recycle our cans and plastic bottles. When we have to use paper plates, we use biodegradable ones that we put in the youth house compost pile. We rarely turn our pile, its true, but the animals around here do eat a lot from it, so that's not bad!! (Plus I have traumatic memories from childhood of turning the compost at Whip Poor Will on hot summer days. Gag, gag, gag.) We even scrape and compost paper plates during fundraisers and church wide meals that the youth help with.

I try to help them see the importance.

But I am not sure they do. I am not sure at all that it really matters to them, because I am not sure they see how it directly impacts them. That makes me sad... and it makes me worried.

We spend lots of time outside. We camp LOTS, we canoe, we hike. We don't have airconditioning in our youth house, so we save energy. We eat outside lots in the summer. Nature and the outdoors are important to me... and are becoming important to them....

But somehow they need to see beyond their sheltered views of the people doing the talking and decide to take action on their own. I know, I know... it is important to plant those seeds in them for the future... but if we don't get going soon... what will the future look like.

I worry. I need to find solutions.

There is hope... we just need to put it into action!

Help CROP Stop Hunger

Ahhhh... its the second weekend in October... and what happens the second weekend in October you may be asking... well...

CROP Walk! (Ok, and the Sauerkraut Festival... but...)

Ever since I was in high school I have been either walking in or supporting the CROP Walk. It is organized by Church World Service and is a 10k walk to raise resources and awareness of hunger related organizations and issues locally, nationally, and internationally. I love it because nearly 100% of everything raised goes on to directly benefit those in need... very little overhead, very little operating expense. You just get some sponsor sheets, get some walking shoes and head to the park that morning.

SO... this year the SUlphur Grove Youthies continued the tradition of the first lock-in of the school year the night before... very, very, very little sleep... and the 10 k. Now... for me, walking 10 k... not really a stretch. I mean, its not like I do it every day, but I consider myself fit enough to get the job done. However, my favorite crew of whiners? Well... they don't really walk quite that much! So... part of the joy of the CROP Walk is the next day at church when I get to laugh at their general whining and moaning over the pains in their legs. It is one of the few comparative times in my year that I don't feel OLD!! and it follows a morning when I get up off the cement floor after a three hour "sleep" and feel very, very OLD!

Anyway... if you live in Ohio you understand and if you don't live in Ohio than you should know that EVERY city, town, and village has its own festival sometime between April and November. So then it was on to the Sauerkraut Festival (and time spent living into my German heritage) and the corn maze for a night with my nephews. Oh, and the pumpkin chunkin cannon that shoots a pumpkin a HALF MILE... and at night they shoot a flaming pumpkin... PRETTY SWEET!

ANyway... that's my story and I am stickin to it!

Here's hopin' your weekend was as nice as mine was!!!

Monday afternoon...

SO... it's Monday afternoon and what does that mean? Well, DUH! It means that I am lacking motivation and possibly staying at work all night... ahhh... being me.....

SO... this weekend I had the great opportunity to spend a day with my lovely friend Rachel J. She is actually one of only two people I have taken to church with me since I came here. Odd. It was so nice to have a bit of Brazil and PACA here... but mostly it was just nice to spend the day with an old friend. Rachel and I did the church thing and did the Tim's thing and then we did the miniature golf with the youth group thing (which I am SURE she was just LOVING... hee hee hee... yeah right!)... but it was such a blessing to me to spend time with her... because it I finally got an answer I have been looking for!

There has been SO much going on in my life for SO long... so many things are piling up and weighing me down... so many things I am struggling with and wanting to throw things and scream lots (wouldn't it be nice if I was just a crier and not so much a screamer... I am such a drama queen!).... none the less, spending a day with Rachel made a big piece of the puzzle very clear.

I miss being passionate about what I do! I LOVE MY JOB! I LOVE MY YOUTH! But with all the things that are going on right now I don't have the passion for it anymore... and when you spend as much time as I do at work... you gotta love it, right? Or it is just wasting time. SO anyway, I am praying and dreaming and listening and talking about how to make things get right and balanced again...

So... I am a big dork. But lots of people lately have told me that they think there is something wrong with me... I want to scream (of course!) THERE IS... but I am not sure anyone really cares... but at least today, in this moment, I can see the root of where I am struggling.

Passion.

Hmmmmmmmmm.