“How can a few short weeks alter the course of a lifetime? Two words: summer camp.”
If summer camp remains the best vacation of your entire lifetime, you are so not alone. Author Dominique Browning (who blogs at Slow Love Life) captures what it feels like to be set free on a mountain (or by a lake, a river or in the woods) with hundreds of small children, a few responsible teenagers and college-aged students (“counselors”) and the requisite number of adults so that no one ends up hurt or in jail and everybody thrives. On our farm we’ve (perhaps unknowingly) created a camp-like environment where kids–and adults–can come relax, play and be at peace. And at the end of each day after feeding the horses, I often find myself humming “Day is done…” as we walk up from the barn and get ready to make a fire. Ever so often, especially in summer, I even dream of camp and the beautiful “Taps” that echoed through the woods after campfire time…tucking us into our rustic cabin bunk beds (no guardrails) where we fell hard asleep, our bodies and minds blissfully spent. It’s a bugle call that lives in my heart and takes me back to childhood. For all of you lifelong campers out there, who find yourselves often “trying to get back to summer camp,” enjoy this piece on The Days of Reveille and Taps.
Arielle at Riverview Camp for Girls Mentone, Alabama, July 2000
Taps
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.
Fading light, dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.
From afar, drawing nigh, falls the night.
Thanks and praise, for our days,
‘Neath the sun, ‘neath the stars, ‘neath the sky;
As we go, this we know, God is nigh.
Sun has set, shadows come,
Time has fled, Scouts must go to their beds
Always true to the promise that they made.
While the light fades from sight,
And the stars gleaming rays softly send,
To thy hands we our souls, Lord, commend.
