Tar Hollow is GREAT!!

SO... in a fitting end to what has been one heck of a crazy summer, I spent last week at Tar Hollow Christian Adventure Camp. Ahhh... Tar Hollow. I am the first to admit that most of the year I struggle with my desire to go to camp. It's not that I don't love it, it's not that the people aren't GREAT and the week isn't fun... it's just that... there is so much DRAMA at camp... and usually, after an exhausting summer schedule I just don't have it in me to really enjoy the time.

THis year I headed to camp with a little bit of extra trepidation because some of my favorite people were not coming to camp for a variety of reasons. I got to camp and hung out in the back parking lot because I wasn't really sure how everything was going to work out and I was still feeling a bit... out of it.

Alas. Looking at it now I would say that of my 10 years spent at Tar Hollow, this was the 2nd best one ever. I only put it second because i don't clearly remember the early 90s when I was there as a high schooler! It may have been the best year ever!

Our keynoter was GREAT... I had good conversations with so many people I can't count. I enjoyed sitting in the back of the lodge on my camp chair talking for hours and late into the night. I got to know people I have crossed paths with for years but never connected with. As much as I love my friends who were unable to be there this year, I felt like not having them there freed me to get to know other people in new ways. I missed them, I hope they return next year, but I feel like my "Tar Hollow World" is much bigger now in such a great way! I enjoyed my youth and spending time with them. We even had a Sulphur Grove ORGANIZED volleyball team that played as part of the organized brackets. SERIOUSLY. I stayed up late, I slept in until it was almost too late, I drank LOTS of vanilla caramel tea, I ate LOTS of good food and LOTS of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I painted lots of bags, prayed with lots of kids, and laughed WAY too hard about the awkwardness of the YMCA locker room.

I can say that I had been praying lots before I went that I would be peaceful in my time there... and I can say that that is how I really felt. I wasn't remotely tempted to leave camp for a "sanity break" as I usually have to on Tuesday... I barely thought about the fact that I was missing the Olympics (which STRESSED ME OUT before I left!)... I spent NO time thinking about drama at my job.... I spent NO time whining about camp leadership or wishing things would change. I was able to voice my opinions and feel like they were heard because I was peaceful enough to look at them without the negativity that usually clouds me at TH.

Now Tar Hollow '08 is just a memory. It went so quickly I feel like I wasn't even there... but I was so richly blessed by it. Ahhhh... Tar Hollow....

Now I am back at the office, back in the drama, back to trying to get things to work out... trying to put life together... but here I am none the less... blessed by an amazing summer, making decisions for the future, and trying to hold onto at least a bit of that peacefulness.

Ahhhh.... summer.

Enough

Yesterday I was visiting somewhere that I have been DESPERATELY trying to cut back on. I have been fairly successful… but sometimes the allure of a caramel frappucino is more than even I can handle!! Hahaha!

Anyway… yesterday I stopped in at my favorite local Starbucks and saw a quote on the wall. It said:

Proposal for a well lived day: The best days go the fastest. Keep up.

Ah. So true a statement. It is August. Time for another week at Tar Hollow. (My 10th year, by the way… I am SO OLD!). It is hard to believe how quickly the summer has gone. Wasn’t it just yesterday that we went camping at John Bryant? Wasn’t it this morning that I woke up in my tent in Minnesota or this afternoon that I was two years old in the Global Village? At the same time it seems like Power Lab VBS at Sulphur Grove was a lifetime ago and it has been years since the spring party.

Truly the summer has passed much too quickly and after next week at camp all my youth will head back to school, some of my favorite people will move away to college… and I dive head first into a whole mess of planning for the new school year.

It feels like this summer was full of “best days”. There were lots of difficult ones too… ones that were HOT or frustrating or exhausting. There were days that tried my patience and tested my resolve. But there were so many that went so fast. So many days in beautiful and amazing places. SO many in places that were filled with laughter… and sweat… and tears. There were days that I got to the end of and my ONLY thought was… I can’t believe this is my life… so many “best days”.

How do I sum it up? Do I mention the things I learned? The ways that I learned to live simply or experience nature or build a deck or breathe deeply? Do I tell you that I learned more about myself in 4 weeks in July than I have learned in 4 years? Do I tell you that this summer I met people who challenged me to change my thinking, to not settle for what everyone expects, and to truly LIVE? DO I tell you that this summer I spent time with people who made me think? Made me laugh? Made me cry? How do you put into words that in a brief 2 months the way I think has changed, the way I want to live has changed, the person I want to be has changed?

Do I admit that I have laughed harder about holes in the bottom of my iced tea cup or the youth boys uncontrollable need to pass gas than was even remotely appropriate? DO I admit that some of the best moments of my entire summer were found at a campsite on Lake One where I slept and read for hours on a rock pile? Do I admit that I cried more this summer from heartbreak and disappointment that I would have ever imagined was possible? Do I admit that this summer frustrated me in ways that are still making me reevaluate who I am?

Would I share that this summer I learned the difference between priority and urgency? That I see the difference between being and LIVING? That I both met and walked away from people who I value more than some people I have known my whole life?

Would I tell you that it still makes me laugh? That it still makes me dream? That it still makes me cry? Would I admit that I found both my emotional and my peaceful side this summer? Would I say I found myself this summer losing the person I was… all the while having no idea of the person I was becoming?

The best days go the fastest. Keep up.

Could it be that I still have a few MORE weeks of summer… a few more weeks with people that I love? Its off to camp in the morning… to try and LIVE not just BE.

Its me… trying to keep up…. And being blissfully unaware of where the ride may end, but content with wherever it takes me.

God is good!
Thank you… tchau!

For Lloyd

On Friday, Lloyd, the family dog died. He was 13 and really sick. (This picture was taken LONG ago, which is pretty obvious since my Nellie is now HUGE. It is also from when Nellie and Lloyd actually liked each other instead of Lloyd just tolerating him!) Anyway, Lloyd joined the family just as I was moving to Anderson for college and he wasn't always my favorite dog. He was a good one though. He was BEST friends with my Harry and when Harry died he tolerated Nellie. He was a faithful companion and really LOVED spending time with my dad. SO, I just thought I would give a little shout out to Lloyd... who was a good dog, even though I didn't always give him credit for it. It's weird that after 13 years he isn't there anymore.... and Nellie sure does miss him. SO Lloyd... thanks for being a good dog!! We miss you!!