Ahhhhh…that first cup of tea overlooking the creek at Camp Myrtlewood. Like so many firsts when one arrives to Not Back to School Camp, they register in your psyche like gifts that you have waited for all year. For me there are so many of them: the first sight of the exit for Coos Bay on Interstate 5, the sign for Camp Myrtlewood as I first arrive, seeing the meadow and the climbing tree and the creek and the lodge. The latter are all usually in the morning as I seem to always arrive in the dark, early hours of Staff Arrival Day and have to set up my tent in the dark.
It’s a day of slow, steady connection.
As the day progresses, I get to slowly get to greet all of the site staff that I know from past sessions and meet new site staff and volunteers. Then there is a little time for me to get down to the creek and go for a swim and practice my songs for the Staff Talent Show on Day 1 and the Concert on Day 4. I could literally sit for hours listening to the stream and am glad to play some music back to it and to be able to dip my body into it’s chilly waters. It was here that I saw the river otters one year, so I’m always hoping to see them again as another way to integrate back into the land. Alas, not today, maybe not this year. But Camp Myrtlewood always surprises.
Natalie, our Mama Bear, and I prepared some snacks for staff as we waited for them to start to arrive. As they start to trickle in we reestablish our connections from past sessions and welcome the new staff into the fold. It doesn’t take long to realize we have another uniquely great group on staff to help create and facilitate the magic that is camp.