Thank You

My last talk to the girls is always on the Ten Lepers (Luke 17:11-19): always the same scripture, always the same subject, always the same emotion… our eyes well up with tears of gratitude and emotion that is hard to identify. We have poured ourselves out and are at the end of our reserves… and are glad.

This is a day full of laughter, deep conversation, careful composition, and tearful moments. It is the culmination of an amazing experience that you can not fully understand. Much of what we experience at camp seems kind of foolish outside of this setting, but we will treasure these memories for decades. Best days of our lives, at least that is how many of us feel.

Jimmy Valvano once said “If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.” I agree. I agree completely and know that you want your girls to have lives that are marked by such experiences. I like to think that Jimmy V would love Greystone. That his eyes would well up with tears and he would exclaim This place is REALLY, REALLY special!

I meant for this to be a longer blog (there are a lot of words in my mind… ideas that I wish I could express to capture the feeling of camp right now) but this is not a day for writing, it is a day for living in the moment! So I will go out and eat a hotdog, enjoy some long conversations, and practice my dance steps for the banquet skit tonight. The day will be filled with a lot of things that will make the time fly by in a blur, then later on tonight as taps plays for the last time my heart will be full with our experience of camp this year. I trust this is true for ever camper and counselor who is blessed to be here today.

It has been such a pleasure.