Diamonds in the Mountains

     For those of you who know me or follow my posts, you must be quite aware of my feelings about the importance and meaning of a summer camp experience.  This holds for the campers as well as the counselors.    Personally, the four weeks I spend at Camp Ramah Darom are four of the most rewarding weeks of my year.  I have the pleasure of teaching in an environment that is all about being open to new learning experiences.  Education at camp is the EXPERIENCE -  being, doing, creating - not just listening and passively receiving.  I am enriched socially, spiritually, intellectually, physically  and professionally from everyone around me, the youngest campers in the Gan to the oldest staff members, rabbis, teachers, kitchen staff.
     This summer, I had the opportunity to stay for an extra week and help staff Camp Yofi, a camp for families with children with autism.  Camp Yofi (Yofi means beauty in Hebrew) is an award-winning program that has been around for 10 years.  The name is a perfect description of the Camp.  The "regular" camp session finishes on a Monday.  In 48 remarkable hours, Camp Ramah Darom turns over to accommodate 25 families with kids with autism.  The staff gets trained, the programs get planned, the physical surroundings get prepared.
     During the week, the parents have the opportunity to do "camp activities" while their children go to their own activities paired with a designated-just-for-them-counselor.  The siblings have special programming as well.   My role at Camp Yofi was working with the older siblings of the children with autism.  This week is also a special, much-needed time for the brothers and sisters of the children with autism.
      That week, I cried, I smiled  a lot, I laughed hard, I sang, I danced.  Everyone did.   Kids performed at the talent show, they sang at the top of their voices during prayer, they got gleefully covered in messy goo during  "ooey gooey sticky night" where they played with shaving cream, ooblick, sand, beads all while the staff and counselors formed a "human fence" around the soccer field.  Each time there was an all-camp activity, our human fence just formed, no questions asked.  The staff instinctively go to their positions to "fence off" an area.  Safety is always of the utmost concern at a summer camp.  This concern exponentially increases with Camp Yofi.  A child can run at any time.  And run fast.  There are countless places they can disappear up in the mountains.  We are all on super-vigilant watch at all times.
     Each segment of our population at Camp Yofi  -  the parents, the kids, the counselors, the staff - shared a week that created lasting impressions.  Some of mine are (in no particular order):

• Seeing the teenage and young adult Ramah staff interact with campers in ways that amazed me.  I have a new-found admiration and respect for some of the 19-year olds I worked with on a daily basis at "regular" camp.  These young people performed in ways that moved me to tears.  Seeing them in action with these special young children gives me a sense of hope and comfort when I think about our future leaders.
• Watching a beautiful young girl who is generally non-verbal sing in almost perfect pitch with no mistakes a song from the Little Mermaid
• Seeing the look on parents' eyes as their children were given an award on the last day of camp.  Thunderous applause, photo- and video-taking, pride, smiles.  The entire room burst with love as each child went up to receive a certificate for something special they did that week.
• Being of part of the congregation as two boys each got called to the Torah as they recited the blessings for their B'nai Mitzvah.  
• My feeling of worth each time I passed my friend (and director of Yofi) Susan Tecktiel as she would tell me how happy she was that I was there.
• The sense of community and love as we sang the Camp Yofi song on the last day of camp. 

     Shining, brilliant, beautiful, unique.  Diamonds!  There is a description that fits.  The facets of a diamond play a part in its value.   Diamond facets are the smooth surface areas which have been cut, polished and positioned at different angles which allow light to enter and reflect back from the stone.   This describes my time at Camp Yofi.  Each component of camp -  the people I worked with, the parents, the kids, the physical environment  -  contributed to the value of the experience.   The light that each of us created there reflected back to all the other parts of the whole.  The brilliance of the light is what we all have taken back home with us.  I hope that light will remain inside and be used as inspiration over the course of the year ahead.

     

"Can't find my way home" -Steve Winwood

“Can’t find my way home"

                        ~Steve Winwood     

I love to take walks.  It used to be that I was happy to meander, and perhaps lose my way and spend time trying to figure out my way back.  Something happened as I aged, and my sense of direction has gotten progressively worse.  I often find myself “ferblunged” to use the term my Dad used to say.  I believe that is Yiddish for mixed up or lost. 

I am happy about the invention of the GPS.  It can be a very helpful tool.  It is a device that compensates me for a deficiency that I readily acknowledge I possess. Sometimes all I need is a little support and guidance, and sometimes I require more -  step by step instructions spelled out clearly and precisely.

Last week, while enjoying a stay at the beautiful Barrack Retreat Center in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania for the annual summer board retreat of the Jewish Educators Assembly, I set out on a walk through a local neighborhood adjacent to the grounds.  Past experience in the very same neighborhood (I took the same walk last year) provided the inspiration for my proactive preparations for my inevitable “ferblungedness.”  I was prepared!  I had my Smartphone, which was a new addition from the previous year.  I was going to use the tools it provided me to assist and support me.

I began my walk.  Each time I took a left or a right at a street sign, I took a picture of that sign with the camera on my phone.  So resourceful!  So proactive!  Soon enough I realized that the sun was shining in the wrong direction so the photos were too dark.

I then used the next tool provided for me in my ibag-of-tricks.  The voice recorder!  Each time I turned a corner, I spoke clearly into the recorder narrating my turns.  All I needed to do, the logic in my mind told me, was to play it back as I was reversing direction to return to the retreat center.  My own logic did not take into account exactly how directionally challenged I was.  Somehow, I could not even find the street that I had dictated into the recorder.

Thanks to my technological moreh derech (tour guide),  I still had at my disposal yet another more advanced tool to assist me in my short but now much longer than planned journey.  My map app!   With but a touch of my finger, there I was as a small blue dot moving on a map right in my hand travelling… east? North?  No matter.  I was able to see my route right on my phone as I wended my way out of this dratted neighborhood  (really it was quite nice and well kept) back to the retreat center.

As I reflected on my personal experience, I began to realize that we all have resources at our disposal to assist us in the various meanderings of our lives.  Sometimes we just don’t know how or where to access them. And in our Jewish journeys, there is support available to us to help us navigate and find our way when we need it.  The resources can span the spectrum in terms of level of support.  Sometimes all we need may be a little suggestion, a creative answer to a query, or sometimes the answers require more in-depth action or education:

·         How can I create a meaningful Shabbat with a special dinner and appropriate blessings when I work full time and have no time to cook? 

·         How do I read and understand the Hebrew in my prayer book when I go to synagogue?  I don’t even understand the structure of the service.

·         I am looking for some ongoing discussions about prayer and its meaning.

·         What does it mean to be a Jew in the 21^st century as we navigate a technological world that did not exist in this form when we were growing up and forming our identities as Jews?

I can be your morah derech - your tour guide - as you meander your way through the streets of an uncharted Jewish course.   I will get a sense of your needs, and ultimately assist you in finding your way, with as little or as much support as you require or desire. 

Allow me to offer support and guidance.  And help you determine your course.

You can find me at www.yourjewishlife.com.  For more information or to set up a free consultation, please email Nancy at yourjewishlife@gmail.com