r e f i n i n g - t h e - s i l v e r

the most memorable thing about camp were the nights.
nights with woody campfire smoke wafting into the midnight blue sky, with the stars just beginning to come out. hearing the lapping of the lake on the beach, the soft creaking and clanking of the dock, staring into the fading glowing red embers, feeling the warm breeze from the lake, hearing murmers of prayer around you and feeling, actually feeling, the presence of God wrapped around you, like a blanket, feeling the way it moves and settles, feeling the empowerment of it and the mystery of it, the way it moves through you and in you and bonds you with the fifty other people sitting around that same fading campfire. sitting and knowing that this is what community is, what it was meant to be. sitting and feeling the full quiet of the falling night, feeling so peaceful it brings tears to your eyes.
that was last s ummer.