Element Camp Liffey 2012

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.

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.

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...