Month: December 2015

Posted on by Pam Cobb

This time of year is a typical time for reflections on the year behind and dreams and goals for the year ahead. At Camp Runoia we build lifelong skills through daily, weekly and session long goal setting. Although we fondly hash tag “magic happens” – ironically most of the magic that comes out of the camp experience is planned and intentional youth development. These building blocks for goal setting set the stage for growth and a lifelong skills of reaching for and working toward things beyond our grasp.

 

AT climbers on Bigelow!

Many Runoia campers learn about goal setting and marking achievements along the way to meet that goal through camp life. Daily reflections by way of “circle up” at the end of the day with cabin-mates and counselors at Runoia might be a “pit and a peach”, a “rose and a thorn” or a “pickle and a candy”. Runoia campers take a moment each day to think about and share what was hard for them and what they feel proud about from the day. Sometimes sharing “a peach bud or a rose bud or a seed” helps campers to think about what they’d like to start working on through camp activities or their major activity for the week. maine01

What we have found to be true is talking about what you experience makes it memorable, etches what you’ve learned and builds on the experience making it more profound or magical. Announcing to others what you found challenging and what you feel proud about and what you want to work on, allows you to feel as sense of gain, a positive experience even if it was hard along the way.hal01

As all of us take time to reflect and set goals for the year, thinking about how we set daily, weekly and session goals in the summer helps get better about setting goals for the year. Leave it to camp to help build skills that last a lifetime. And it never hurts to dream a little about how #magichappens, too!

Let it snow?!

Posted on by Alex

The weather outside is gorgeous!

It’s beginning to look at lot like April. The weather in Maine is incredibly mild which is so very unusual for this time of year.  With not a glimpse of the fluffy, white stuff to be had it has an interesting impact on the feelings of the season.  My children have never in their lives had a Christmas without snow.  I am fielding lots of questions about how on earth Santa is going to make the trek from the North Pole without a soft landing spot.  Luckily having grown up in a country where there is almost never snow in December I can reassure them that he will definitely get here.  Our conversations then turned to camp and ‘what if the snow came later and it was still freezing in June?’   An interesting thought and one we hope will not come true any time in the near future.  While it would certainly be fun to have a winter camp session filled with ice skating, cross country skiing, snow shoeing and of course s’mores around a roaring fire we love our long summer days.

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERAThe weather certainly plays a huge role on our perception of events and experiences.  We expect here in Maine that it will be cold and snowy for the Holidays and that the summer will be filled with long, warm days.  We shall embrace our mild winter and imagine what it would be like if we could actually ski over break while hoping we will get our fair share of snow long before it is time for camp.

Hoping you all have days that are merry, bright and filled with the kind of weather that suits your activities.  Here at camp we will enjoy seeing the grass for a few more weeks and celebrate not having to shovel yet.

Sending best wishes for the season from our homes to yours,

The Runoia Team campstamp2

 

Solace from the Winter Solstice

Posted on by Pam Cobb

As we approach the shortest day of the year, our minds turn toward summer time where the days stretch on and on and dusk lasts beyond bedtime.

Ying Yang Like Summer and Winter

The winter’s ying to the summer’s yang is a reminder of contrasts in every day life: can you enjoy the warmth without cold? Does the summer lake water feel more welcome after you’ve skated on the same frozen pond? Do the fresh spring leaves inspire you with delight after their branches have been barren all winter?

How about the cool touch of snow and the way a fire side evening melts it away?

Lingering Bits of a Summer's Day
Lingering Bits of a Summer’s Day

What about seeing a friend after ten months of being away?

Short winter Days
Short winter Days

Or unplugging from a phone and social media to take in the beauty of a campfire or sunset reflecting on the lake, a warm friend near you and the depth of conversations not spoken in IM lingo?

 

 

Fleeting moments of a winter’s day makes us yearn for endless summer. Bring it all on so we know the difference. Revel and make merriment in the depth of the darkness only to sojourn in a summer day. Peace to all in the Runoia world!

Finding Perfection

Posted on by Alex

The Perfect Tree – Finding Perfection

There is a lot of anticipation in our house this week.  The upcoming weekend is our annual sortie into the woods to find the perfect tree to decorate for the Holidays.  We don’t have a particular place or tradition for getting the tree sometimes we swing by one of the local Maine tree farms close to our house but we have also been known to go out in the back acreage and find a wild tree.  Once we have decided if we will go and cut one or grab one at the market stand the hunt is on.

balsam8The challenge is always how do we find the ‘perfect’ tree? How big should it be? Round and full? or a little thinner so the ornaments hang down? At the farm there are even choices of what variety of spruce to bring home!  It is hard for it not to become overwhelming especially when everyone has a different opinion about just what constitutes ‘perfect.’

balsam7Depending on how cold it is the search may be long or due to frozen fingers and toes it may be a short trek to the nearest good looking spot.  ‘Perfect’ becomes relative when the promise of hot chocolate is involved.

The funny thing is that no matter which tree we end up getting everyone always declares it ‘perfect’ even when it requires a 6” decapitation to fit in the house or takes up half the room.  It is the time with family and the tradition of actually doing this together every year that truly makes it ‘perfect.’

tree1However you celebrate the Holidays I hope that it will be your own version of perfect.

The World Outside of Camp (WOoC)

Posted on by Pam Cobb

Guest blogger, Carrie Murphey, writes a poignant passage about camp here:

In this moment snugged squarely into the season of gratitude and giving, I want to try to share my gratitude for what camp has given me over the years.

While camp is never far from my heart, the truth is, I haven’t worked at camp in five years now. I love my job as a college dean but I must report, the World Outside of Camp (W.O.o.C. for the fellow acronym-makers out there) is ever-so-slightly less amazing than every single moment is of camp. As such, I find myself thinking of camp often. Occasionally, it’s wistful longing for a campfire by the lake, but more often than not, it’s small everyday moments that help keep camp a daily touchstone.

Every Day Moments at Camp
Every Day Moments at Camp

 

Sitting in a chaotic staff meeting where many voices are trying to be heard and good ideas raised, I recall boisterous meals in the Dining Hall, working to listen with my whole ears – to tales of tag-up, swims in the lake, rest hour shack shenanigans – and add my voice when it is truly an addition, and not just because I am itching to make sure it still works.

 

Supporting students through their course selection process for next semester, I want them to pick topics in which they have a genuine and personal interest, rather than make a choice simply based on what their roommates or friends are doing. I think often of mornings at the tag-up board where Alex counsels Runoia campers into the same sort of thought process. “Are you really interested in being out on the water today or would you be happier playing tennis?” Making choices for yourself is a learned skill and one you get the chance to exercise every day at camp. I wish for days where all my available choices were as much fun as the ones at camp!

I think of camp at odd times and regular times (from my desk, watching as the sun goes down outside the window, I regularly find myself singing “Taps” in my head), and most often as I reflect on a new friendship I’m developing or an old one that I’m trying to keep active. For all the skills that camp builds, none is more important than those you pick up living in a cabin with fellow campers and counselors. You won’t think of how important your shack bonding time was, or how invaluable opening day name games were, until you come face-to-face with a new person and find yourself able to make comforting and comfortable conversation. PerhapsCarrie Blog 2 it is through those conversations that you’re able to develop a friendship out of a chance encounter. If you’re lucky, there’s always the possibility that your camp friendship skills will allow you to develop even a non-camp person (they exist!) into the type of friend you thought was only possible at camp.
This season and every day, I’m grateful for all of the memories I have of wonderful times at camp (and yes, particularly those involving campfire), but the real gift that camp gave me are the countless moments when camp is with me in the World Outside of Camp.

Ahhhh! Keep the "inner" Campfire Burning All Year!
Ahhhh! Keep the “inner” Campfire Burning All Year!

THANKS CARRIE!

Do you want to guest blog for Runoia? Submit your blog writing to blog@runoia.com