Do you feel the season’s changing? Here at Camp the colors are breathtaking, the temperature is crisp, and the daylight fades quickly in the early evening.
If you know me well, you know that I love summer best. I like sunshine and summer heat, girls swinging on the rope swing and singing in the Dining Hall, and fireflies on the gym lawn in the 8 pm twilight. I’ll even take the humidity and mosquitoes as long as I can be at Camp!
But I’m learning to appreciate every season for the gifts it brings. This fall I’ve been so aware of the beauty that blazes before the world returns to the deep sleep of winter. And I love that it is in this season of abundant color and blazing beauty that we take time to celebrate the joy and abundance in all areas of our lives.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Of course, this season isn’t only about abundance, but also about Halloween and All Saints Day, elections, daylight savings time, exams, and family gatherings. In this month, we are tasked with voting for those we most trust to govern our shared lives together. We will take time to express gratitude for the abundance we enjoy and hold in our hearts the many who don’t enjoy that same abundnace. Families will welcome students home from college, adjust pilgrim costumes backstage in elementary school auditoriums, and buy lots of groceries. We will end our days earlier and gather around warm fireplaces and rake the leaves away from our walkways. We will lean into this season and all that it offers - both the blazing colors of the falling leaves and the darkness that comes earlier each day.
As I move through both the brilliance and the shadows this month, I will be holding close the words of Phillippians 4:8. I hope they’ll bring you peace and comfort, too.
I’d also like to share this quote by Jean Vanier:
A community is only being created when its members accept that they are not going to achieve great things, that they are not going to be heroes, but simply live each day with new hope, like children, in wonderment as the sun rises and in thanksgiving as it sets.
Community is only being created when we have recognized that the greatness of humanity lies in the acceptance of our insignificance, our human condition, and our earth, and to thank God for having put in a finite body the seeds of eternity which are visible in small and daily gestures of love and forgiveness. The beauty of people is in this fidelity to the wonder of each day."
May you, our Camp DeSoto community, live in wonderment like children. May we all embrace our human community this November and entrust our lives to the God who gives it to us - each breath, each moment.
Jubilate Deo.
