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.