Little Things Like Destiny

My sister went back to college this morning.  It’s been so great having her back home, and I’m going to miss her like crazy, but I am glad she’s getting back to her path toward whatever is waiting for her.

Last night, we were talking about what we’re supposed to be doing in life.  She told me that even though she knows she’s on the right track and in the right place, she can’t help but feel that there’s something she’s not doing, that there’s something waiting for her.  I know exactly what she’s talking about, because I felt the same way when I was in college.

There’s this notion today that kids are supposed to have everything figured out, but the truth is that’s almost impossible.  Yeah, some know what they want to do, some know their goals and work tirelessly to achieve them.  Some know that they’ll grow up to be doctors or lawyers or engineers.  But there are just as many, if not more so, who literally do not have a clue.  I was one of them.  I’m tempted to say that I’m still trying to figure it out.

It’s weird to look back and think about how everything that’s ever happened to you has been leading up to one moment or one discovery.  For example, my time spent working as a summer camp counselor up at Lake Texoma.  Growing up, I was outdoorsy, but not the camping kind of outdoorsy.  Everything about a job at summer camp was way outside my comfort zone.  The truth is, I wouldn’t have even known the camp existed if I hadn’t, by chance, noticed a flyer for it in the mail one day.

How cool is that?  It’s like, destiny came to me by mail.  Because I do think I was destined to work at that camp.  I met some of my very best friends at that camp, had some of my very best experiences, learned more about myself and grew in ways that I never thought possible.  Working at that camp gave me everything I didn’t know I needed.  And I still need it.

I like to believe that your destiny will find you, even if you have no idea what it is or where it will lead you, and of course, I think we all have many, many different destinies.  It was my destiny to adopt my kitty, Midnight, and save her from the sewers.  It was my destiny to read the book that led me to realize I wanted to be an author.  It was my destiny to work at a summer camp in a place called Pottsboro.

I guess what I’m hoping to say with this post is that if you don’t know what you’re doing, where you’re headed, what’s going to happen, you’re not alone.  In fact, I think you’re one of the lucky ones.  Your possibilities are endless.  It’s all out there waiting for you.  And when it finds you, it’s going to be amazing.  Take it from someone who’s been there, and who hopefully has a thousand more destinies waiting.  Your life is going to be amazing.

Weekend Recovery

Hello, friends!  Happy Tuesday.  

I’m afraid these last few days, I have been rather lazy.  I spent half the day Friday and most of Saturday up at Texoma, working at a labor of love event at my old Camp.  I had a great time, reconnecting with old friends and making new ones.  I especially loved being back at a place I hold so near and dear to my heart.  

For the record, all of these pictures were taken on my iPhone.  I didn’t take my camera since we spend most of our time working.  

This was my first Labor of Love weekend, and it was a wonderful experience.  It was a chance to work with members of our community, several of whom had been through tough times, and to listen to their stories.  I’m also thankful for the chance to do something good for a place and people that I love as opposed to what I normally do, which is whatever I feel like doing, mostly for me.  

One of my absolute favorite things about being at Camp is sitting out under the night sky and looking at the stars.  There, away from the city light pollution, the universe opens up, and you can really appreciate how vast and endless the sky really is. It’s a wonderful experience, to just be, to listen to the wind and the trees and the night crickets.  It’s a great reminder that life isn’t all hustle and bustle and money and material things.  

The next morning, we woke up at 6:30, ate a quick breakfast, and went to work.  Our task for the day was clearing out dead brush and tree limbs (and whole trees!) from the pathway to the low ropes course.  There were two separate bonfires for the brush.  One was pretty much the most impressive fire I’ve ever seen.  It was huge, basically the size of a small room.  The other fire, while pretty, was not nearly as impressive.

Although altogether a very worthwhile and rewarding experience, there are things that happen when you work in the woods all day.

1) You get dirty.  Like, really dirty.  Filthy.  The good thing is everyone around you is just as dirty and smells just as bad as you do.

2) You get bug bites.  Even if you wear bug spray, chances are, you will still come home with bites all over your body.

3) You get scratched up.  Trees are scratchy!  Briar thorns are even scratchier!  I’d rather drag a whole tree up a hill than carry a bush of that prickly mess.

4) You twist muscles that you didn’t even know you had.  I haven’t been able to walk properly on my left ankle since I got home.  Instead of bending outward like I rolled it, however, it bends inward.  Weird.  

5) You come home extra sleepy from all the sun and working and pass out for about 48 hours while your body recovers.

However, I’m happy to report I’ve come home to all good things.  I will fill you all in soon, I promise!  Until then, I need to keep revising and working on the blurb for the back of the new book.  July 1 is fast approaching!  

Love to all!

Feels Like Home

This entire week has been kind of strange.  Although I’ve gotten a lot done, I’ve also had a lot to worry about and I haven’t been feeling very good myself.  I’m very ready for it to be the weekend.

However, this afternoon, I stopped by my friend’s house to drop off a copy of the new manuscript (she has graciously volunteered to be one of my beta readers).  To my surprise, I saw several cars lined up outside her house, but they’re doing a bunch of construction around her neighborhood, so I didn’t think anything of it.

I know on the door, however, and she answers it to reveal a bunch of friends that I used to work with at my summer camp up at Texoma!  I was so thrilled!  I hadn’t seen several of them in so long!  I got to stay and visit with them for about an hour, and even though I hadn’t seen several of them since last summer, it was like no time had passed at all.

Over the years, Camp All Saints has become like a second home to me.  I began working there as a counselor in 2009, but I’d actually been there once before, in 2002, back when it was a Lutheran retreat.  No offense to the Lutherans, but I did not enjoy it at all back then.  We had to eat at an outdoor pavilion filled with wasps and the water in the fountains was yellow and disgusting.

Today, the camp is absolutely beautiful.  I didn’t even know our church’s diocese took it over until I received a flier in the mail about it.  I applied for a job there on a total whim and ended up working there for three summers.  I’m going to go back in May also for a labor of love weekend.  I honestly can’t wait.

I grew up in the suburbs, about a thirty minute drive from Downtown Dallas, so big cities have never been much of a thrill for me.  To be honest, I really don’t enjoy them all that much.  I’d much rather spend my time in a small southern town, outside, in the fresh air, on the lake, running barefoot through sprinklers.

Before camp starts each year, the small town of Locust throws a local fish fry.  It’s probably one of the most small town things you could ever hope to do.

I also love hiking.  I need to find more friends who will hike with me.  Most of my friends are married and boring.

Just kidding, I love you guys.

Even if you are married and boring.

The Texoma skies are incredible.

And the wildlife is abundant.

And then of course, there’s the camp itself.

It was good luck to kiss the fish you caught, okay?

Finally, this is a picture of me and Kit Kat, my beta reader, at the fish fry.  Kat is seriously the sweetest person I’ve ever met and this June, she will be leaving for the Peace Corps for two years!  I don’t know what I’m going to do without her!  I guess I’ll just keep writing.

I’m so grateful to have found a place like All Saints that will always feel like home to me no matter what, and to have made the friends that I did there.  Seeing them this afternoon was exactly what the doctor ordered!

In writing news, I started on the new book last night.  I swear, the hardest part of any book is the very first sentence.  Do any other authors feel that way or is that just me?

Feel free to sound off in the comment section!  Good night, all!