Off to Estes!

There's a board in the lodge at camp that quotes the famed psalm - "I lift mine eyes to the hills." My eyes are lifted that direction... out west, following the forefathers in their quest for exploration, self-discovery, and wilderness... deep wilderness. From west, from whence, from there cometh my help. I met the metaphysical out there years ago, decided that God had to exist as I stood for the first of two times on Mummy Mountain looking out over hundreds of miles of ranges and colors - purple, blue, gray - and looked down at my feet, as tiny tundra wildflowers grew next to the great cairn. God being so great and so delicate before me. He is everywhere - here in simple ol' NJ as I type - but I can't wait to meet him in seemingly untouched creation, in his glory. In a place of such magnified glory, something happens to people - they want to be better, want to stand taller, hike longer. Character happens in Colorado. The wind moves fiercely, and it seems that the Spirit moves fiercely as well.

After a very long day of packing packing packing, Perry and I are 140% ready! I'm sure we'll arrive in Denver Airport without something essential like... hiking boots. :0). The excitement is really building up; I can't wait to breathe those high-altitude molecules. Ah. And no Internet or cell phone! What a blessing forced upon me. I can spend hours looking at this screen, and end up not much better than I started. It's so easy to forget how simple it is to function without a cell phone. They really became the rage when I was about 14... and I lived without it then! When I was in third grade, my teacher at Lincoln Elementary in Summit (the ever kind Mrs. Smith who Perry bizarrely served at Friendly's the other day) sent me to nurse to get my eyes checked. It turns out I'd been squinting at her blackboard for a while. I could barely read all the backwards E's and G's. Didn't even know I had a problem! Not that the glasses are an exact parallel, but the cell phone is such an essential of our lives now; I think nostagically on those days where I didn't have a phone, didn't know I needed one. Despite the fact that a call home or to friends once in a while is really quite nice, at Cheley I am forced to write letters - to really think about what I have to say. I am forced, day after day, to be with people in the physical dimension. There's no escaping to the internet, no cowardly conversations on IM, no profile (facebook) defining who I am. We are all, in a sense, addicted to technology. Breaking that is crucial to see other people for who they really are, yourself for who you are, and God for what God is - each revealed in nature, silence, and conversation. I'm most looking forward to standing on a mountaintop, the world beneath my feet, singing the traditional Cheley "Netherlands", and letting the wind reward me as I stand there, hot, tired, and dirty. What ranges will we climb?

What lakes will I visit this year? What mountains will I peak? Every step will be a victory for me - every step holding the promise of a new life rooted in peace, in determination, in the journey, not the destination. I don't know many of the people, don't know many of the campers. But returning for the 7th summer, I know the land, and I know that this summer will be better than the ones before, as I stand on the knowledge that age increases one's ability to be satisfied (at least from age 12).

Love to you all! See you in a month... please write!!