We’ll Bless This Day with Thanks That We’re Alive

There is a clearing in the dense forest of my life that I have visited for many years.  It is a place where I feel my most alive and joyful.  It is a place where music fills each day and I am able to sing my own song. It is a place surrounded by beauty and the sound of children’s laughter and love. It is a place that has shaped my life and the lives of my children.  It is my beloved summer camp.  My roles at camp have ranged from directing the summer musical, to heading up the nature department as “Mother Nature” to working in arts and crafts.  The Arts and Crafts department is situated alongside the lake and hums with activity every day.  It is where little girls craft and create and chat with each other about their life at camp. I love everything about it.   

And magic happens here.  There was once a camper who could lie down in the grass and find a four-leaf clover every single time she tried.  There was once a magical day when I, along with a group of girls had created a small pond outside of the nature building.  We collected rocks to surround our little pond and planted some flowers.  We were quite proud of our effort and our handiwork.  But the magic really happened when we came down to the nature hut the next morning and found a sweet little frog had moved in.  How thrilling that was.  

 

There was another magical day when YoYo Ma came to camp and surprised the community by playing his cello. His daughter was a camper and he had come the night before and watched our summer musical.   I had written a play that summer called “The Enchanted Clearing” and when he introduced the piece he was going to play, he said it reminded him of being in an “enchanted clearing”.   Now there was some magic.

 

 

There have been many extraordinary musical talents at the camps.  One man in particular has contributed in immeasurable ways.  Biff Fink. He truly created the soundtrack of our lives at camp.  Tragically, he passed away earlier this year and the loss is profound.  What lives on however are the beautiful songs that he has written that are sung at camp each summer. 

 

Gulicking Up is a song that brings all of the counselors from each camp together in song at an all-camp event during pre-camp. No doubt our neighbors on Lake Fairlee can feel the thunderous energy that pulses from Hive as we sing this song. 

Tonight we’re singing all together (my, oh, my), for we’re Aloha in the present, you and I.
  Let’s go one round for love and laughter, in
 the now and ever after. Let’s lift up our voice and shout it to the sky.  Stamp your feet, clap your hands.  If you’re looking for a partner, here I am, (yee haw) Are things piling up on you, just let me help you muddle through, cause I’m a good-for-something rascal, yes I am.

His lyrics speak to the deep love and passion that so many of us feel for the camps. 

 

Summer is a meadow full of moonlight.  Summer is a mountain bright with sun. Love is summer’s promise, like a ring, it has no end. And a smile is summer’s music, like a song from friend to friend.

 

Or who doesn’t think of the magic of being in the woods with the beautiful song- Rainbow’s End. 

 

Somewhere on a hillside,
 where the woods are deep with pine, 

there's a sudden apple clearing, there's a secret place of mine.


Yes, and somewhere there is starlight, 

up the hill and round the bend,


just a quiet place for dreamers,
that they call the Rainbow's End.




Rainbow's End lies just before us, yet it seems so far away.


Isn't that the way it's always been? 

The things we need the most are always just around the bend.

 Still we know we'll find them, when we reach the Rainbow's End. 

 

Somewhere there's a harbor,
 that the world has never seen,


Where the ship's come in on firelight, and the waves are apple-green.


Take your dreams into that haven, take a prayer and take a friend.


Make a wish and make a promise,
on the gold at Rainbow's End. 

 

Aren’t we all dreamers?  Isn’t that something that we learn at camp? Biff captured so many of our deepest and most profound feelings for this place.

 

He visited camp during the summer of 2019 and wrote an original song- “Aloha in the Hills” for the show that we created.   We were able to share this song with its stirring lyrics at the reunion last summer. 

 

Another sun is rising in the sky

Another breeze is blowing down the lake

Can’t you hear the call of all that longs to be

In every single sacred breath you take.

 

Whatever makes an ordinary day

Turn fresh and new and beautiful to see

Well, it’s not the things that we’re so certain of

But chances that we take that make us free.

 

Aloha in the hills, Aloha in the skies,

Aloha in our hearts, Aloha in our eyes

And when at close of day,

That ole’ moon begins to rise,

We’ll bless this very day,

We’ll bless this day with thanks that we’re alive.

 

Biff’s gifts will live on as will the indelible contributions of so many special people.  And lucky me, I am still able to spend time at camp each summer.  The campers arrived today and are settling into their tents and cabins, making friends that will no doubt last a lifetime.  Off we go!

 

 

 

Cleaning My Closet is Making Me Weep

 If you subscribe to the Marie Kondo method, or have read the many books on “Decluttering”, you know that the act of letting go of stuff is supposed to make us feel happier, somehow liberated. My husband and I are in the process of readying our house for sale.  We’ll be moving (eventually) into a new house that myhusband is building. Nothing about this process has been easy.  Like so many, we have a lifetime of accumulated stuff, of detritus.  We’ve set deadlines and are slowly, doggedly going through our belongings and unloading.  We have taken countless trips already to our local donation center.  We participated in “Thetford Free Day” last weekend when our whole town was invited to put stuff at the end of our driveways to give away for free.  We had some choice items that were snatched up quickly and the rest was driven to the donation center in town.
 

A particularly gnarly task was going through our linen closet and winnowing down our ridiculous collection of sheets and towels.  How could we possibly have accumulated so much stuff?  One answer to that question is that we have not been good at throwing things out. Perhaps this is a Vermont thing.  As an example, we’ve held onto the extra-long sheets that our kids needed for their dorm room at UVM. Don’t ask me why. 

 

I will admit that as we have removed clutter from our living spaces, I have felt some relief and a feeling of expansiveness.  But today’s project has really taken its toll.  While I do regularly weed out my closet and give clothes away, I have also held onto a lot of items “just in case”.  The “just in case” category includes mostly clothing that I just might need for a show or a concert.  Our lifestyle in Vermont does not allow for much getting “dolled up”.  The most we get dolled up is for weddings and/or funerals.  But I have used clothing from my closet in various plays and definitely have pulled things out when I was singing in the Gospel Choir at Dartmouth.  Each concert had a different color combination so it made sense to hold onto some colors that I don’t normally wear- think orange or pink. When I sang with my beloved acapella group, Custom Blend, we spent countless hours at rehearsal discussing our clothing choices for gigs. Many of those items are still in my closet. 

 

 Going through my shoe collection was particularly poignant for me.  I found a    pair of sandals that I had worn in a production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  I unearthed two pairs of tap shoes that I sported in a  production of Nunsense years ago. That was when I learned the basics of tap dancing. My elementary tap skills were disguised by the nun’s habits that we wore.  As long as we looked like we were tapping up top, what was happening to our feet could be a bit of a mystery. I found several pairs of character shoes, a staple for performing in musical theatre.  As I sat on the chair in my bedroom  surveying my pile of shoes, I stared down the hard truth.  After two brain surgeries, with ongoing issues with vision and balance, I will not likely be tap-dancing again soon.  Never say never.  But let’s be real.  I won’t be wearing those leather boots with a two-inch heel either. I’m a crocs and sneakers girl now.  I may not sing in a concert again either.  Now that I’m deaf in one ear, I have discovered that I have a much harder time staying in tune- at least in an acapella group.  How heartbreaking is that?  For me, it is truly heartbreaking.  

 

 It’s really hard to say goodbye to the things that have brought me such joy.    Marie Kondo tells us that before we throw them away, we must thank them for the way that they served us.  So here’s to my tap shoes and character shoes. Here’s to the dresses I wore in Our Town and in Working and in Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche. Each of these experiences brought me great joy indeed.  I think I’m going to hold onto the black sweatshirt I got after performing in the “booth” in CATS.  Sweatshirts fit my lifestyle today. 

 

Since our new house will not be ready for some months, I am reconciled to the fact that most of my belongings will be stored in our barn.  It may take years before I re-unite with them again.  But I can imagine my delight when the day comes and I open up my box of shoes and pull out the fabulous shoes I wore as the teacher in Working.  Some things are just too precious to unload.