DeSoto Girls,
I am sitting in the Parlor by the Log Cabin, listening to the birds chirping, the mountain breeze blowing, and the sounds of “getting ready” all around me: a weed eater, a pressure washer, gravel under golf cart tires.
A question I get asked A LOT this time of year is, “Are you ready for Camp?”
Sometimes I say, “Ready or not, here it comes!”
Sometimes I say, “We’re getting there!”
Sometimes I say, “So ready! I can’t wait”
Often as I answer my brain starts whirring, thinking “Are we ready? Have I forgotten anything? Will it all get done in time?”
So, I think about being ready a lot this time of year.
Some of you may know (I talk about it a lot!) that I love being a Godly Play story teller. Godly Play is a way of sharing Bible stories, nurturing spiritual growth, and making meaning through story, wonder, and play. And I learned in Godly Play how important it is to be ready. We get ready before we cross the threshold in to the Godly Play room where we step into the stories of God and God’s people. We get ready as we sit in a circle together, quiet our bodies and our thoughts, and prepare to listen for God’s voice. The stories themselves often remind us that it is important to be ready.
Being “ready” is different than being “perfectly ready.” Instead, it is about awareness and intentionality. It is pausing to pay attention because something important is about to happen. We can each do that no matter how busy our minds or how hard we’ve been playing moments before! We just take a moment to shift gears, to arrive in the story circle, to say with our whole hearts, “I’m listening.”
When I first learned this at Godly Play, I understood that Camp DeSoto had been teaching me this my whole life! We stop talking when we come to the Worship Rocks for Morning Watch. We wait to be invited into the Dining Hall. We enter the gym singing for worship. These are all community practices that help us get ready for what is coming. They help us be fully present.
Of course, we are all busy geting ready for camp in practical ways - Parents are filling out camp forms, shopping for whites, and preparing travel plans. Girls are packing trunks, texting their camp group chats, and planning summer costumes. And at Camp, we are weed-eating, making cabin assignments, and stocking the store with yummy snacks! There is much to be busily done in order to be ready.
But, there is also another kind of “getting ready” happening. When I take a few moments to stand under the tall trees with their fresh green leaves and listen to the birds and the wind, I can feel it for just a moment. Camp is getting ready - to welcome girls, to hold space for the memories we will make, to soothe our souls with “the peace of wild things” as Wendell Berry aptly named it.
My soul is getting ready, too. Ready for girls to come back to Camp, ready to see what God will do here in this community this summer, ready to play and worship with Camp friends.
Whether you are getting ready to come to Camp DeSoto this summer or not, I hope you, too, will find a moment to ask yourself, “am I ready?” Let your heart get still and quiet. Listen for God’s whisper to your soul. Cross whatever threshold is in front of you expectant to meet God with a space of inner quiet, open and attentive.
Even if you or I forget a detail and aren’t perfectly ready, we can ready our hearts to receive God’s grace because it is always there for us.
See you soon, DeSoto girls!
With love from the Mountain,
Sarah
