A special treat this week, folks - to this point, we have been very Lake-Site-Centric... but this week, by special request: a view from the Mountainous Site, by our own Mountainous Site Director and Mountainous Man - Andrew Legg!
Please do keep us in your prayers, and drop a note for any reason, or no reason! We love notes.
And now, without further ado, Mr. Andrew Legg!
Mountain Site Corvid Update.
Surely he has spelled that wrong? Nope! In a little tangent of comedy writing I typed in Corvid . The thinking being as my comedy leans to the ‘word nerd’ side, that there might be something to the word play with COVID. And wasn’t I delighted to be reminded that Corvid is the Crow Family- Jays, Ravens, Magpies, Rooks, and Crows. So greetings to you all, My Family.
I have been mindful of the grief cycles in this time. We have all been finding ourselves at some place along the continuum of seven stages that follow a tragedy; Shock, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Testing and finally - Acceptance. Although I would love to slip the bounds of my humanness and be spiritual enough to rise above it all... I think the point is that we are here to experience these things and then come out changed leaning closer on Christ as we do so.
We were all shocked when the edict came to self-isolate. My denial ran in the mode of, "Well, surely this won’t hit Lethbridge…" My anger was in a form of eye-rolling when people posted mindless things on social media, or/and hoarded things, until I found myself doing versions of the same. I got angry marking little personal injuries to my own lifestyle: “First the kids are at stuck at home and the weather has been bad AND NOW that the weather has finally cleared they have closed the parks!!!! murmle, murmle murmle.”
I bargain - in prayer and with myself - that if I just do this one thing I don’t really have to observe this other thing. God will protect me right? I have been depressed - perhaps not capital D depressed - but lets call it Profoundly Bummed Out. My routine has been up-ended! This is the time of the year when I shift gears into camp. Start packing things for the summer. Make a few impossible dreams like “What If I Hiked Crowsnest Mountain once a week? Why I’d be in the best shape of my life!” My silly pre-summer dreams are wildly over optimistic, but they are joy-filled and fun and I love making them, and when at the end of the summer I take stock... it is always fun to compare 'what I thought I would do' with 'what actually happened.'
This year, it feels like the year-in-review can already start. I can begin to take stock of where I am, and what Crow Mountain Site will look like for the summer of 2020. The facts laid out are these: camp will be a very different version of itself than ever before. Now is the time for me to shift toward the testing - and dare I say dreaming phase - to help move me toward acceptance. The Covid-19 protocols will be in place for our Corvid family, and that means that things we have taken for granted, like sleeping in a cabin full of friendly new faces is on hold until further notice.
The restrictions we have been given create a framework that make "camp-as-usual" impossible. Not to mention very weird. People seated a 6-foot distance from each other around a campfire. Ugh. Capture the flag without the tagging… weird. Sitting distant from each other at meals. Heartbreaking. But I have been moved by musicians playing online for people, and I have been blessed meeting friends over Zoom, and as I move past my selfish vision of ‘What camp is’ I can quiet myself to listen to the Holy Spirit, and begin to imagine and create new & different ways to feed the sheep. When we heard the definitive news from the government that we would have to maintain social distancing protocols throughout the summer it sent me to considering “What exactly is camp if not getting together?” and I thing the answer is akin to the profound mystery of the Church somehow being the people, and not the building.
SO NOW… we have t-minus 8 weeks where the vision stays the same, but we explore and plan new formats for the vision.
Things we are considering: tending to projects that have been put off for years because we were in the busy mode of doing camp, with campers. Exploring new ways to use media, new and old, to connect with Campers and their families. Looking at providing activities like hiking, canoeing, backpacking and possibly rock climbing in Covid-compliant fashion. We are looking into the viability for Mountainous site to be a staging ground for family groups who have quarantined together to do camp. Or open up for solitary spiritual retreats. Ideas are starting to grow. And I would love to hear from you for what you need as campers and parents of campers. It will not look like the camp we knew, but as we invite the Holy Spirit to guide us, we can trust that it would be more than we could ask or imagine.
I began with a "Greeting to you all". I am mindful that so many of the Epistles start this way. 'Greetings' and later ‘Until we meet agains’ have so much more weight to me in this time. Next summer I look forward to endless high fives, hugs, and sitting at the same table. Perhaps even a spate ‘greeting each other with a holy kiss’? But that will be an issue to sort next year. Blessings. Until we meet again. Really. Until we meet again, be in His blessing.
Andrew Legg