Friendship Bracelet

Let's Go Camping!
Camp Otterbein: Hocking County, Ohio

Raise your hand if you've ever made a friendship bracelet.

Good.

Me? I tried.

Learning to make one is a rite of passage you always do at camp, usually in your teen years.

But for me? That event occurred in... ahem... my mature years. What can I tell you? I've always been a late bloomer.

What was more pathetic as I hinted early on, was that I totally failed at what was supposedly an easy and fun craft. Those innocent-looking cut strands of embroidery floss were evil incarnate.

You can take the floss and start tying an overhand knot in one end, a teen was kindly showing me how.

A young girl to my right was very patient. Then make lots of small knots by forming the strands Into.The.Shape.Of.A.'Four,' she slowly explained.

Do you remember me saying, It was supposed to be easy and fun? Note the semi-auxiliary verb supposed. The cows had already gone home, and I was still knotting. And unraveling. And knotting some more.

I was going all Tim Gunn to make it work (that's Project Runway speak, for those who don't know). After some grunting, I was able to complete about an inch worth of a twisted, gnarled, and unrecognizable strand.

Stop laughing.

I was forlorn. I had just unfriended my would-be friendship amulet.

When right there on the porch...

I spotted Hubby, his eyes shining and childlike, heading a soccer ball into an invisible goal against a four-year-old boy.

And I saw Younger Daughter seated on a rocking chair watching Second Granddaughter get her hair boho-braided with ribbon by a fellow camper, aka hitherto-undisclosed expert on all styles of plaiting, from fishtail to a chain braid.

And kids on the ground below hopping and jumping while balling around.

Seeing all that made something within me click. Camp was not about me crafting the perfect friendship bracelet.

Camp was cold air, dark night, warm fire, bright stars.

Camp was about the night that turned into mornings with friends that turned into family.

Camp is retaining the gifts of friendship and moments of wonder.

To remember why the stars shine. To be in love. And like the Grinch in that Christmas story, feel your heart grow three or five times or however many times.

To relish the laughter over a card game.

Call to mind the awe-inspiring imagery of a fawn drinking from a small pool of water.

And be reminded that the threads of life don't always weave the way we want them to, but we can keep trying, one knot at a time.

Don't know why. Don't care. I find it comforting that everything is as it should be.

This. A perfect day.

For that is what camp is all about.

Camp was all of us.

Together.