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| defrosting - sort of a metaphor of what is to follow |
Was
recently without access to the internet or mobile phones whilst
helping to run a winter camp in a secluded little valley in Liffey
Tasmania for high school students. 'Element Camp' is forty people
staying in the simplest of cabins, playing games, going on walks when the sun shines and
sitting around the large woodfire heater on couches trying to stay
warm. It's that sitting around that I love the most where you look
into each others eyes and with no tv or other distractions you talk
and you listen and you think.
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| The height of technology on Element Camp |
The
distractions are discarded due to remoteness and a barricade of steep
hills on all sides that keep out all the information that comes to us
on invisible waves. Sure, if you find the right spot and wave your
phone in the air for half an hour some information may leak through
but generally you're cut off. Far from one that despises technology,
I love what it can bring to our lives but every year I help run this
camp I'm thankful for our location and the days of respite from the
modern world.
If
it sounds like the camp is a relaxing time you'd be right and you'd
be wrong. As a leader I feel the pressure of wanting everyone to have
a positive experience stressful. Trying to keep us all on task and
trying to not let the task get in the way of people. Element is
special to me because while we have days and nights chock full of
games and activities they are interspersed with times that we gather
together and get a glimpse into what makes us tick. We hear the
stories that shape us, the passions, the struggles and we challenge
the picture we have of ourselves to be a picture that reflects our
better nature.
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| all tangled up |
It
is stressful trying to herd cats, the cats being people
that you want to get to a place where they feel safe to share and
open to listening. In that place where lights can go on and where
someone can walk away with something of value. That sort of stress
while exhausting can also be refreshing and replenishing, the good
sore of working muscles you didn't know you had.
And
we need to build all the core strength we can, not just physically
but mentally, emotionally, socially and spiritually. When you hear
some of the stories and come to see life through another's eyes you realise that the modern world, expectations,
media, families and friends – everything, makes the world and
finding your place in it somewhat daunting.
First
time junior leader with the permission of her friend who was still in
medical care told a story of how that friend contacted her recently
to confide that she was about to take her own life. This friend did
not want our junior leader to tell anyone which left her, a young
person, with a major moral dilemna. Fortunately she chose to contact
authorities who arrived in time to remove the noose and stem the
bleeding. That friend was not able to come on camp but wanted her
story shared and it floored me that someone who wasn't even present
was able to have such a presence and to touch the lives of everyone there. Not bad for a lonely, in pain and insecure young person.
We
have such power and such potential.
A
lot of mine is wasted like the muscles that fall into atrophy through
lack of exercise. I try to 'keep it real' in my everyday life but I
can wear a mask from time to time so that it looks like I'm
confident, or I'm cool or I'm in touch with what matters. Thank you
Element Camp! nothing like realising that your stinky socks are just
adding to that aroma in the cabin to figure you're nothing special.
And yet the focus of the camp was about just how special we all are
but not that the universe revolves around us solely, we are all
special, together.
I
always feel more like my real self on camp where there is nowhere to
hide. I don't always like everything that comes out on show but it
feels more honest. Since camp I keep telling myself that I'm
recuperating and that might have been true for a day or two. Yet when
the rest of your holidays bleed together into one long season of a
soccer computer game you start to miss the stress. You miss it
because some stress is good for you.
Started back at my position in school today and through sitting down and writing this, well I'm
starting to feel like me again. Thankful for others to share the journey with and that they help to keep me on the adventure. May what I get from Element sustain me till next year...
