This blog is dedicated to all the Senior Lodgers who aged out of Timberlake on August 10, 2014.
Everything must end. And this ending was spectacular (more on that later). Yet we are part of cycles, and once we realize that, it’s enormously comforting.
Endings give meaning. Limitless amount of time or money may seem attractive, but would breed boredom, listlessness and a loss of challenge and motivation. A limitless Timberlake would face the same fate.
For those that gathered at the bell on Saturday evening, as the candles slowly burned down, the sense of loss was real. These older boys will not be campers at Timberlake together ever again. To sit quietly with that loss, to watch the length of the last candles burn down to nothing was a powerful learning moment for all of us. When faced with loss, we can choose to stay present, to keep vigil and to witness the moment from a place of peace and acceptance.
And then let it go.
And then get back to LIVING LIFE TO THE FULLEST!
And this is certainly what we did in the last four days of camp. The trips came back on Wednesday – another successful series of adventures and experiments in self-reliance. We work to keep social justice present in all elements of program and one example is having female trip leaders. Campers find themselves challenging their own gender bias when they appreciate a woman for surprising them as a strong trip leader. Then they are asked why they are so surprised. Summits and self-awareness!
The next day we gathered our bounty of vegetables from the fields. The Barns and Gardens staff and campers led us towards a remarkable feast. There were several salads, an egg and vegetable stir-fry, homemade bread, butter hand-churned from our own cow’s milk, jams from blueberries we picked, fried green tomatoes, beef jerky, roast chicken from the chickens we fed and cared for all summer, and pulled pork from F&W’s former sow, Halifax. It was an amazing local meal, with everything but the flour created at Farm & Wilderness. The fact that we eat meat we raise is powerful. The chicken harvest, which over 40 campers participated in, is an example of taking responsibility for choosing to consume meat. By seeing the full cycle, campers and staff connect with their food in an entirely different way. There are photos of the beautiful decorations and food in our photo album on our website.
Did we turn in for the night that evening? Not at all. We moved straight from Harvest Meal into SPY NIGHT!! Spies had already been contacted and received a hand written message on a leather scroll. They melted away into the woods after the meal, while the rest of camp prepared to defeat them through counter-stealth and vigilant patrolling until the 13-bell finished its slow toll. Everyone won in the end as we all had a great time playing hard, no one got hurt and we all enjoyed watching the clever and elaborate measures the spies had prepared to elude the searchers.
It was a late night, but we didn’t slow down the next day as we prepared our Fair concessions (there were 1,000 sugar cookies to bake!). After breakfast, the TL staff began to transform the Upper Lodge for our banquet. This year’s banquet had to be unforgettable as a fitting closure for our 75th summer. Our theme was “Anything Is Possible”. Every summer I get a bit nervous. We have so much happening during that final week, and I wonder if we really are going to reach our goal of transforming the Upper Lodge rather than just decorating it. At about 3 p.m., the decorations were going fine, but transformation had not yet happened. The vision was there, with a Wishing Well centerpiece with a Tree of Life growing out of it. The tree, with its roots in the Earth and its branches reaching for the Heavens, is a universal symbol for hope and connection. Four paths led away from the well; one to the history of TL with a golden, backlit Catamount Bell. Another to a starry black skyscape, another to a pastel-birthday-party wonderland and the final path was made of real grass and led up the wall to a perception-bending “lawn on the wall” complete with lawn chairs and miniature BBQ set. It was all good, but it just wasn’t 100% there. I went off to help prepare the opening game/skit and walked back in 15 minutes before show time and the room just been transformed with a magical dimension.
Sliding down a bouncy-castle style, ten-foot high slide, our campers entered a world of wonder and wishes. All of the impossible things they had imagined at camp hung in beautiful water color from the branches of the tree, casting a magic effervescent power into the water of the well as they made their final wishes.
The evening ended with appreciation beads and recognition of all the hard work campers had accomplished in different activity areas. There were special awards for going above and beyond on the enormous bonfire we built for Fair. In the areas of Barns and Gardens, we had a new rating: “The Milkman” for mostly milking out the cow, as well as using the milk to make cheese, yogurt and butter and being able to explain the pasteurizing process. In Canoeing, we had a few of our highest ratings to award. In Rock Climbing, we recognized campers who helped created a new, multi-purpose climbing wall with a 12-foot overhang inside Ken’s Lodge. We recognized many campers in Work Project and Arts for their practical and artistic improvements to camp in the form of new stairs, bridges and more. In Outdoor Living Skills, we had campers who increased their survival skills as well as their orienteering and trail skills and even one who mastered them all with our first Pioneer rating in recent history.
We woke up the next day to our final morning of Timberlake songs and Silent Meeting. We hustled off to get clean up before a pre-parade lunch and then- off to the Fair! And what a nice way to finish a summer: Opening ourselves up to family, friends and guests to share in our home-grown festivities. We were fortunate with the weather, and when it came time to light the fire, all the birch bark, brush-gathering and log-hauling of this 9,000-pound creation came to fruition in a blaze of glory.
We ended the evening with a candlelight ceremony to give thanks to all we’ve received from Timberlake. The oldest campers, after watching the final candles burn down, walked down to the fairground and spent their final evening at TL by the fire…drifting off to sleep as sparks flew upward. The sense of leaving is balanced with a sense of belonging within the 75 years of our history. The journey is over, the journey has just begun.