Greystone Live

We will once again activate the Live Feed for Greystone this evening during our Junior Play production of “Beauty and the Beast”. We will start the feed at 7:15; the play will begin about 7:30 and go for a little more than an hour. We keep an archive for 24 hours after the show, so you can access it later on if more convenient.

We will do three Live Streams over the weekend, each will have archive video available for 24 hours after the show. Simply go to www.campgreystone.com/live tonight and you will see the Junior Play, on Saturday you can see the Watershow, and Monday is the Senior Play production of “The Sound of Music”. The ability to see what is going on at camp while it is happening is a lot of fun and gives a glimpse of our little world that is charming. That being said, it is not the same as being here.

The spirit of camp is very high right now. We have one week left to be together and that realization seems to have hit the campers just now. They are happily productive in their classes (one young camper came up to me at lunch yesterday to tell me that she passed levels in two classes that very morning), they are happily engaged with each other (lots of DMC’s yesterday during free time), and celebrating the simple routines of camp with that appreciation that only comes when time is short (the camp game always is most fun at this point of the summer). Counselors are just as excited as the campers: anxious about the end of camp productions and wishing we had just one more week.

This is the feeling we always have at the end of Main Camp… we ALWAYS want one more week. This was true when Main Camp was 7 weeks long, it is true now. There is something sweet about a community that is this close. Few want to see such a time end, for the “real world” is not like camp and we will miss it when it is over.

The shorter sessions are wonderful too, but there is no sense of loss when the community disbands. At Main Camp we are left with a profound void that brings tears long before closing day. Those tears have not yet really started, but they are just under the surface. We got a glimpse of the emotion at last night’s Senior Celebration.

Most of these girls have been at camp since they were very young. Camp provides a thread that is easy to trace through life and the friends made at camp are friends that prove to be life enhancing and significant. They don’t want the time together to end, so as they sing their songs they do so with eyes that glance fleetingly to those who are sitting nearby. As the eyes meet, both sets tear up at the same moment and both immediately look away- it is too early to board this train. They know that they can’t manage a week of good bye’s; so for now a glance is enough.

These friendships are the heart of camp. Friendships that are shockingly deep and very significant. Friendships that are forged in an intense community of shared experiences with good foundations. An intense community that only gathers once a year… and when rejoined is just as strong (in fact it is stronger) for the time apart. These are lifelong friends, a surprising realization to a young person who often has not considered what life will bring in the decades to come. These friends provide a glimpse of what blessings God has in store for life and those blessings are good. We are thankful and take the time to acknowledge the gift in the moment.

Lunch today is a Thanksgiving Feast… smoked turkey, green beans, cornbread stuffing, cranberries, squash casserole, and pumpkin pie. We announced it to the girls at breakfast so they could know what all the great cooking smells were (the dining hall being in the heart of camp pretty much fills the camp with the aromas of the ultimate grandmothers kitchen).

We are also doing a Raku firing for ceramics. This is a cool way of flash finishing ceramics projects in a smoldering fire (it makes cool iridescent colors naturally in unexpected shapes and hues). Very cool to watch, I will certainly go up and take some photos!

Thanks again for reading.