a royal blue silence

I forgot to mention in my promise to blog again, that in a few days, two weeks of Day Camp was going to start. I consider myself lucky, I've only been on a few field trips, but I'm still pulling 10 to 12 hour days, not to mention working two weeks straight. It's been a bit of a challenge. In years past, Day Camp has always been the highlight of our summers. As a kid and counselor, I couldn't wait to put on that blue shirt. But this year, I was originally only doing small bits and pieces. So I wasn't investing too much passion into it, but as things fell into place two things occurred, one I should have anticipated and another I couldn't have. First of all, one of our interns broke her ankle. She's been an amazing trooper through it all, but there was a lot of slack that needed to be picked up. Second, (and this is the one I should have seen coming), is there is always ALWAYS more to do the week of than is planned for. As the "freebie" staff person, a lot of the extra stuff falls on me. I'm not complaining at all, I really do like being available to pick up the little things to make everyone else's life easier. But I found that without the expectations of being fully invested, it's taken me a while for my passion and joy for Day Camp to catch up to me. Plus, most of my heart (and my head) is already in Seattle, just waiting for the rest of me to move up there. And Day Camp is not something you can do with half of yourself in WA and the other half pouting in your office because your new responsibilities weren't on your original To Do list. But there have been a couple things that gave me some perspective.
Yesterday as we were getting the last groups onto the bus and I was waiting on the curb to wave them off (I got permission to miss Ice Skating, which was a bummer because it would have been fun, but I had that pesky little thing of my normal job responsibilities to address). I noticed that about ten of the little tykes from the church's preschool were sitting in a straight line in the courtyard, where the groups had just left. At first my thought was, "bummer for them, they can't get out into the courtyard until we get out of their way." I then got caught up in the frustration of a kid who left her backpack in her room, and another who had a "need to go to the potty now" urge. The buses were already running late, and the bus boss was taking a while getting a count and all I could think of was as soon as they left I could tackle my huge To Do list. And then I looked back, and there were ten little pairs of eyes, staring back at me. Sitting cross-legged, patient as can be. I turned to a co-worker and she told me they liked to watch the buses drive off. That was it. These little ones were sitting still in anticipation of getting to have the privilege to wave goodbye to all these big kids. And lets be honest, if a three year old could patiently delay her coloring and sand-box time to wave goodbye to the buses, why couldn't I be just as patient?
Why is it, that after you've seen the inner workings of a childhood wonderment, it looses all it's power? When did big yellow buses loose their magic? In devotions this morning, my mom brought up the Fruit of the Spirit, and encouraged us to pick one to ask God for. And without a moments hesitation, I picked "joy." I want eyes wide open to see God working in these next two weeks, and not so focused on my watch and the To Do list.
And tomorrow is Great America, wish us luck.