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!