Campfire @ MindSay

We have a basic human need for acceptance. It can be satisfied in a multitude of ways, but it must be met or the individual will suffer.

We can think of community in any number of ways, but my definition is very simply – the people we interact with routinely.

One example is our local Amish community. They live, work and worship together under a common and shared belief system that voluntarily binds them together for their mutual benefit. Their faith is woven through everything they do. Each member contributes to the whole, even children, and similarly, each member benefits. If one needs home repairs, the community gathers together at an appointed time and makes the necessary repairs – each member helping, from the youngest to the oldest. No effort is too minute to be appreciated or too grande to absorb all the attention over the others.

In our modern Western culture, this principle is no longer as evident as it once was, and it is missed. As humans, we need to feel accepted, and one of the best ways to accomplish this is to contribute something to the whole. We each have natural & unique talents and abilities, but in today's society, many of these gifts are not generally appreciated, and yet we know that theoretically, the whole is only as valuable as the sum of its parts. If some of the “parts” are not considered valuable, then the whole will suffer. When we under-appreciate the gifts and abilities of others, we depreciate the value of the whole.

I realize this is a difficult concept, and that I am just slightly idealistic, but as an educator – parent – citizen who frequents “disadvantaged” neighborhoods, it simply breaks my heart to see so many people existing without hope. Hopelessness is a fruit of a breakdown in community.

Who says the bank president is more valuable to the community than the toilet scrubber? Who says attorneys are worth more to the whole than the farmer? Who says men are still a better investment than women? Who says different means one is better than the other? Is the singer less valuable than the painter? Both have a gift to share.

We each have a part to play, gifts to give, talents to share, skills to contribute to the whole to make ours a better place. Whether it is within a community of faith, business, or leisure, at some point, we have to get over ourselves and learn to appreciate one another for who we are – not who we want them to be, or who we think they should be – but who we are! Guess what? Avery baby born isn't a genius ... and that's OK!!! Competition has its place, but it should not cause us to value mathematicians over a skilled auto mechanic. Do you appreciate the gifts you have? How about the gifts of your kids, friends, or neighbors? We need more “atta-girls” and “atta-boys!” More positive life-giving words spoken to dispel the harsh negative ones. More words of acceptance to embrace our children in their world of cliques and judgment. Maybe, just maybe we can actually learn to appreciate our differences, hmmm? Maybe?

Rom 12: 3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

~ B

I dig Camp Gitchigomee!
Coffee Break
Braids and beads
Campfire 1
Campfire 2
Campfire 3
This rotten beam was replaced.

“Okay, so what are we doing here, and where’d your friend go?” She asked.

“Patience. Look.” He replied, and stood up. Just over his eye level there were two swords embedded in the trunk of the tree. Teth removed one, and handed it down to Ruki. He took the other for himself.

“What are we going to do with these?” She asked nervously.

“Spar,” He replied, and leapt from the branch, falling quietly to the ground.

“Man,” She thought. “How can his legs take the impact of falling from that high? We must be twenty-five or thirty feet up!” She clumsily fumbled down the branches, trying to keep hold of her sword. She took a jump at near ten feet, deciding that she couldn’t be outmatched entirely.

“So tell me sir, what is the anatomy of…’sparring’, did you call it?”

“Well,” He replied. “I swing, you block. You swing, I block. And, ‘Teth’ will be fine, thanks.”

“But what if I don’t block?” She asked nervously.

“Well, I’ll just have to stop before I hit you. Don’t worry, Jaden and I have been doing this for a while.”

“What if you don’t block?” She asked, seemingly more nervous than before.

“Well,” He threw the blade up, and it somersaulted in the air. He caught it, and carried its momentum through two vertical swings, gripping it with both hands again, shifting into a proper fighting stance. “I’d better block then, shouldn’t I?”

“So…”

“I’d suggest attacking.”

Not ready to turn down a challenge, she folded the blade to her right side and rushed forward, swinging the heavy blade horizontally, sure that steel would meet steel at any moment. Her heart leapt a little when she felt the momentum of the blade carry her swing all the way over. She didn’t have the arm strength to stop it. Its single edge fell into the soft soil of Abul’s yard. She looked to see where her opponent had gone. Her eyes drifted to her right, and rested on the slanted edge of Teth’s wide blade.

“Lesson one,” He announced. “Lock your left wrist when you want it to stop. Lesson two, don’t let your guard down. Overswinging will do that.”

The thin red fabric of anger permeated into her heart, and her chest began to burn with the satisfying tension it brings. She bared her teeth as she came in for another swing, folding from her left side this time. The second time around, the two blades met, her edge on his flat. Even a seasoned fighter didn’t take the shock of that much momentum well. He tipped in the direction of the swing, planting his base foot wider to absorb the shock.

He drew his arms in, and thrust her blade back. She let out a tiny yell of surprise as it retraced its path back towards her left hip. “Lock your wrist” She commanded, and the blade came to a dead halt. The strain on her arm from the shock was even briefly satisfying as her mind acknowledged that the pain would make her that much stronger tomorrow.

This time Teth went on the offensive. He folded the blade vertically, the thick spine coming to rest along the curve of his back. He threw it forward and a little to the side, so the blade would follow the path from his right shoulder to his left hip. She ducked under, and it hit her sword with a clang, knocking it to the ground. She let out a grunt of exertion as she swung it around from right to left, spinning as she went. For 360 degrees she swung the blade, until it collided with his and threw him violently to the floor.

He rolled as she threw the blade down where he just was, a little bit shaken. That was one blow that he couldn’t have blocked if he had tried. These swords were probably ten pounds, so even a tiny speed could give it incredible momentum! She drew the blade high again, and swung down a second time, leaving a second cut in the sod, parallel to the first.

Teth swung his blade without getting up, aiming for her ankles. In a show of miraculous agility, she leapt into the air, and drew her knees in, the blade passing harmlessly beneath her. She planted her feet, and absentmindedly pulled back a strand of hair from her long, dirty blonde veil. “I wish I had brought something to tie my hair back with!” She thought strangely as she wound up for a third vertical strike.

He rolled again, this time the blade missing him by hairs. He sprung to his feet, knowing that his luck with stand-to-lay fighting would be dimming quickly. “Amazing showmanship for a first timer!” He thought. “If only I had taught her how to block properly, then this could even be a real match!”

His thoughts were interrupted as a horizontal strike passed beneath him as his reflexes carried him into the air. He tucked his knees in so tight that he was almost round, and landed again just in time to block a strike opposite the one he just dodged.

The dance of whirring blades and clanging metal continued as Jaden appeared around the bend carrying a third sword that he had folded just the previous week, in case one were to break or be too badly chunged. If Riku was as cool as Teth had said she was, it looked like it would soon be serving its purpose as the third addition to the rascal team’s arsenal.

Riku swung again vertically, hitting Teth’s sword and sliding down and off to the side. He folded back and mirrored her attack. Unsure of how to block a vertical attack, exactly, she instinctively braced herself, clenching her muscles. When she didn’t feel the sting of pierced skin or the dull hurt of a smashed cranium, she courageously opened one eye, and then the next. The diagonal of Teth’s blade was so close to her face she had to cross her eyes to focus on it.

Withdrawing his blade and thrusting it into the dirt, he said, “That would be how you win a match. As you can see, we’re quite lackadaisical when it comes to each other’s safety,”

“I can see that!” she exclaimed, exasperatedly wiping the sweat from her brow.

Teth caught sight of Jaden out near the corner of the house, then remarked, “So, did you enjoy our version of hanging out?”

She nodded. “Very much so!”

“And can we expect to see you on our turf more often?”

A smile crept to her lips and she responded, “As often as I can get away! This beats the living daylight out of studying history or practicing calligraphy!”

Teth smiled, and held out his arm, seemingly in some sort of salute. Rather, his fingers closed around the hilt of a blade, not unlike its sisters (although it was well polished and had not dent nor ding).

“Jaden made this for you,” He lied, winking inconspicuously at his friend, who gave him the thumbs-up. Teth noticed her eyes light up, and his heart jiggled a little in satisfaction. She turned around and gave a wave to Jaden, who was making his way toward them.

--

That night, Teth, Jaden, Ruki and Abul sat around a beach fire, listening to the sound of the broken waves and roasting saccharines, a garden fruit that tasted like orange-peel candy and strawberries, and talking amongst themselves. As one conversation drew to a close, a gust of evening summer wind blew across the water, and Ruki hugged her knees a little closer. “My parents are going to be furious with me,” She realized with a saddened sigh.

“No doubt,” said Jaden, testing the squishiness of his pear-like fruit. “But at least they can’t keep you from going out again,”

“Well, they put a lock on my window, and after tonight, there’s not a chance in the high heavens that they won’t seal it,” Ruki replied.

“Obviously you don’t know these two real well,” countered Abul. “There’s not a lock on the island that can keep these two in or out of anything if they really want!”

“Not on the island or in the world,” Jaden added, taking an impatient bite into his prize.

“That’s great!” She exclaimed. “When can I see you guys again?”

“I suppose that depends on how early you rise, milady.” Teth answered.

“As late as I can manage, though my mother usually shakes me out of bed before sunrise. And Ruki will do fine.”

“Teth can usually do all his work long before sunrise. He’s a machine!” Jaden exclaimed.

“Here’s another question for you,” Teth continued, ignoring Jaden’s comment. “Would you brave water that has not yet been warmed by the sun? Kauro and Kairom will be out all night, and they should radiate a little heat,” He added, enticingly gesturing at the green and blue orbs governing the vision of the eastern sky.

“I don’t know if I want…” She began, recollecting the awkwardness of seeing Teth naked. She hesitated at the idea of being bare in front of them.

“You can relax. We’re no rakes.” Jaden said bluntly. “In fact, we seek to beat rakes up at every available opportunity!”

“Get a grip girl!” She ordered, silently. “It’s a challenge, and I won’t turn it down. I can’t! I need to show these guys that I can do anything that hey can!”

“Ah heck! I’ll give it a shot!”

They exchanged smiles.

The boys bid farewell to Ruki as she climbed the tree. Her mother had mercifully left the window unlocked, most likely knowing that Ruki would rather come through there than face her father. She gave them a final wave, and turned to climb her tree. She took one last look as she crawled through the open window and closed it.

Just as she was pulling off her clothes to get ready for bed, she noticed something weighing her small pocket down. She removed the item and took a look. It was an almost perfect sand-dollar, a rare occurrence in Athnomian. Attached to it was a tiny ribbon, reading in the ancient tongue, “The sun riseth ere you shalt know it,”

“Could it be?” She wondered.

My sweater still has a lingering scent of eau du campfire.

They say the sense of smell is the strongest memory inducer.

Happy memories for a happy morning.

*sniff*

Mmmm-mmmmm...

Okay nothing new to really talk about, just updating I guess....im happy to be back in the groove of things with the MU friends, its awesome! Tomorrow I'll be going to the mall with Jake and Drew and Stacey, maybe Dianna? After we reserve what looks to be one of the best movies, I'll buy one or two myself, and THEN it's back for the E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES! Just a preseason game I know, but then maybe at halftime I'll leave because the other crew is having a bonfire that I would greatly like to attend so yea I'm excited lol. Goodnight!

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corrupt, stirrin it up

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