Well, so much for keeping this blog updated! I have many things I have wanted to write here, but both lack of time and energy have kept me away. Things will happen and I will think, 'I should blog that!"...but then I come home and the thoughts get scrambled and my focus moves to "get sleep!". But today I decided to no longer let the lack of sleep rule me...ha! And it's funny, because yesterday, I hit the wall.....where I physically felt like I couldn't take another step or speak another word. I even came home and slept during dinner and the evening game.....I was exhausted! And although today I am up and about, I really am just going through the motions....not really feeling much today. So, it's funny that I'm choosing to blog NOW! And although I have "deeper" stuff I would like to share here, today will be simple......
Earlier today, I had just dismissed the campers to their morning activity classes (which is usually described as controlled chaos). It had already been a long morning.....not much sleep, a situation at breakfast that almost caused me to lose my cool, complaining staff, a disappointing 'spouse' moment, and far away family issues that kept me on the verge of tears.....I was ready for a nap by 9:30!! So, as the campers disappeared to head out to their classes, there was one lone little boy left standing in the A-frame.....sweet little Caleb Butler....the youngest son of my dear friends Dino and Nanette. He is all of 3 years old and not even as high as my waist......and oh, so very cute! His parents had been looking for him but he was hidden among the the 170+ campers, and it was only after the left the A-frame, that he was even visible. Dino was, of course, glad to have found him, but was in the dilemma of how to get him home to the babysitter.....he needed to get to a meeting and Nanette was already in a meeting of her own. So, in part to avoid having to deal with people, I volunteered to walk him home.
My job requires that I am constantly on the move....I am always walking quickly, or even running, from one place to the other......mostly because I am often called to be in two places at once. I rush from place to place, often getting delayed because people need something or have an issue that needs to be dealt with. I barely start a thought in my head before it's interrupted (and lost!). My world is always loud........ campers are always yelling my name, often kids are mooching piggy back rides off me......I often have a microphone in my hand, and even my keyboard playing in the worship band is loud. So I guess that is why this particular walk across the camp stuck out to me. It was strikingly quiet. It was just me and Caleb. Me and this tiny little chatter box, who didn't even come up to my waist. It has been a LONG time since I had walked that slow.....a long time that I didn't have to "fix" something.....a long time since I talked about something as 'unimportant' as the sticks we were each carrying and the legos waiting for him at home. That was the depth of our conversation, but it was by far the most precious chat I have had in a long time. It took almost 15 minutes to walk a few hundred yards to his tiny house.....but I needed that 15 minutes more than anything else today. I needed to slow down, focus on the simple things, and just enjoy the walk.
As I dropped him off at his house where the babysitter was anxiously waiting for him, I was quickly forgotten as he settled down on the floor with his brother and became engrossed in a cartoon on tv. But as for me, I will not forget our sweet few minutes together.....it will remind me to slow down, don't hurry past all that God is doing around me....the summer goes by so quickly, although at times it seems like it will never end.
So, thank you Caleb, for allowing me to walk you home......and thank you Lord, for walking with us, too.
