June 7 2025

Our Opening Vespers was pretty special. Having Catherine and Peter on stage was a highlight for me, Cat’s prayer and introduction combined with Peter’s leading of the verses were significant improvements to the way we used to do it (with only Margaret and me). The girls were silent and listened intently to the story, recited their verses with spirit, and savored the beauty of the candles in the cloud-darkened sky. Not even the rumble of thunder and the promise of an upcoming storm disturbed the moment (the rain did not arrive until everyone was back in their cabins after Taps). It was a great moment and will be remembered.

Thank you for being such faithful readers of the Blog this week. We appreciate your interest and encouragement. At the same time, it is OK to take the weekend off! Analytics consistently show significantly fewer visits to the Blog on the weekend; and this makes complete sense. Many of you already sense the need to back off the routine. This year, to encourage the entire camp community (campers and counselors alike), we will not be posting photos or printing emails on Sundays. Honoring the Sabbath with a break from work is a good thing (one of the Ten Commandments), and we think we can do this better by taking a break from these routines. Any photos we take on Sunday will be posted on Monday, but we will give the counselors a break from taking and updating thousands of photos on Sunday. Consider it a break in your routine as well and take that time to offer a brief prayer of thanksgiving. God is good! Resting from work is good! We hope you will enjoy the break (but as with everything we do, this experiment will be assessed at the end of the summer… it might not be a permanent change).

Parenting has become very intense these days for you (and camp has perhaps contributed to that tendency). When I went to camp, it was 7 weeks of separation with only one letter once a week (often just one sentence long… Camp’s fun, I like canoeing.) This mandatory “meal ticket” written on Sundays was supplemented by one or two letters from my counselor (usually four sentences of scant detail). No photos, no emails, no phone calls. Lots happened every day, and my parents didn’t know about any of it until I came home. Rather than causing anxiety, the absence of these details was soothing to my parents. They knew I was safe, growing, and having a good time. They knew that they would learn the details that mattered to me in good time. Such parenting was easy and beneficial for everyone.

Things are different these days. We post thousands of photos and deliver thousands of emails daily. Keeping up with all this content is a lot of work for both you and us, and it may not be beneficial. A Sabbath break makes sense. We are going to try it out and see how it goes. We think it will be an improvement… Camp is a place to grow. The girls thrive, perhaps because they have room to grow on their own.

So take a break… catch up on the photos and write your emails another day… it’s ok to skip some days! Know that soon you will be going over camp photos with your daughter at home, enjoying some amazing conversations as you connect with her camp experiences on her terms. That is how you will really understand camp.

Partly Cloudy again… a nice breeze makes it very comfortable.
Perfect temperatures… 80 degrees
Breakfast… Truck Drivers Special (biscuits and sausage gravy)
Joke… “Pass the Bacon, Pig”
Lunch… Ham and Cheese Croissant Sandwiches
Dinner… Grilled Flank Steak, Polenta
EP… Group Fun Night: (T1-T6: Water fun at Waterpark, Pool, and Slip-and-Slide; T7 - B6: Messy Paint War Survivor Showdown; W4 - W6, C1 - C12: Rollin’ in our Jammies Bunco party)