Tags
cabins, creativity, games, group, happy memories, Matthew, outdoors, Peace, rest, summer camp, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, the spiritual center
Yesterday a trio of people came to visit and remember the days of their youth here in Windsor. Two of them had been campers here when the Spiritual Center was Big Island Camp, a summer camp for Jewish children and teens, and the third, a husband who had heard all the stories from that era and was a willing companion to the two who desired a return to “the old days.” It is less common now, after almost 40 years of the life of the Spiritual Center, for campers to come back to refresh their memories, but come they do and their conversations with each other as we tour the land and the buildings always reveal a fondness for their experiences here.
Yesterday was no exception and I was happy for the opportunity to be the “tour guide” with a window into their past and observer of their appreciation for what has become of their youthful home-away-from-home. Several times, someone remarked that those days were experienced as “simpler times” when campers lived in primitive cabins, played simple games and used their creativity to entertain themselves and each other with the carefree energy of summer. The follow-on line was always, “That couldn’t happen now…” and everyone agreed. Now there are security concerns everywhere and standards for everything like whether or not electronic devices are allowed in camp. (Well, we at least need our cell phones!!)
Nostalgia aside, it’s easy to admit at times like yesterday that we have lost something in the past half-century. We must admit, however, that there are some astounding advances that are beneficial to our world – and there are campers who are still learning to love the outdoors and experience the joy of diving into a lake or catching a fish or climbing a mountain – or being part of a group challenge in creating a game or making something silly out of clay. Moreover, even the sophistication of many camping experiences now can remain as peak moments in a person’s life as it is the relationships that form from those times that stay with us when all the specifics of the experiences dim.
This morning as I read the wisdom of the gospel text that says, “The kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old” (MT 13) I gave thanks for the happy memories embedded in this land and prayed that we would continue to enliven the people who come here for peace and rest and refreshment with an experience of reverence for all that has been and all that can be for those who share it.
I smiled to myself just now while reading the story of Jacob’s dream of a stairway to heaven in chapter 28 of Genesis. When he awoke from sleep, he proclaimed, “Truly the Lord is in this spot although I didn’t know it!…it is the abode of God…the gateway to heaven!” My smile was evoked by long ago memories of junior proms (my own and those of classes when I was teaching) when school gyms were transformed into fairylands with themes like “Stairway to Heaven” – the most popular song of one of those years. Things were simpler “way back when” – in the days when parents were chauffeurs instead of the present-day need for limousines and “after prom parties” consisted of breakfast at Denny’s or just going home to dream of the event that had just taken place. Ah, for the simple life!
Last evening we began our first “Wisdom School” of 2017 here at the Spiritual Center. It is different from past events in that at least half of the people came as strangers to us. Usually at least one of the three team leaders has met everyone. It was a wonderful gathering with lots of willingness on everyone’s part to participate. When we left the room two hours later to spend the night and early morning in silence, we were no longer strangers but companions on a search for deeper meaning. The next three days promise great blessings for the group. Even in this short time there is hope that we will begin in some small way to experience the truth of Joan Chittister’s words to me this morning. She writes:
Yesterday Deborah and Bill, my two colleagues in the “Wisdom Work” we have been doing for four years now, arrived here at the Spiritual Center for a time of planning as we await a group of eleven participants to our first weekend “wisdom school” of the year. They will come late this afternoon so we still have time for prayer and preparation, including final details for the weekend. Many of the participants are unknown to us and have found us in various ways (God bless the internet!). This is a rather new phenomenon and excites us as it seems indicative of the growing desire for “more” among spiritual seekers popping up everywhere.
This morning I’ve been searching unsuccessfully in all my favorite sources for a way to express what I can only describe as the pain of the world – but not a universal pain. There is that, but the sadness/distress that washes over me now is closer to home, residing in Albany, New York, West Virginia and California. It is about fire and flood, the fire appearing on east and west coasts and the floods devastating so many lives in between. “We’ve lost everything” is the refrain from those whose homes are reduced to ash as well as people – young and old – who slog through mud still waiting for word of loved ones who may have been swept away by angry streams or rivers. One cannot help but weep for their pain. At the same time there are images of store and restaurant owners who open their larders to feed the people in their towns who have nothing. Groups form to shovel mud and fold donated clothes for the needy while others come to pray their grief and that of their neighbors.
