I’m at home for most of this coming week with minimal obligations – and it feels terrific! It’s been a bit of a whirlwind! All good, but I do think I hear my hammock calling my name!
When I reflect back on my summer – so far because I am determined to enjoy every single drop of it yet to come – the word that comes most clearly to mind is community. I’ve experienced – albeit from the sidelines sometimes – varied communities in action this summer. Each community has been unique, but they all share certain characteristics – a common purpose and goal, mutual nurturing and care, the chance to forge memories that will last lifetimes and that often significantly alter the lives of community members. And FUN in capital letters!
I’ve visited eight 4-H Camps across New York State this summer – from Long Island to nearly the Thousand Islands, from the Catskills to the Finger Lakes and Western New York. Each time I found a community. Young staff members experiencing their first taste of awesome responsibility, campers away from home for the first time or returning again to a place they’ve learned to call home, rituals and routines that might baffle a visitor but make perfect sense to everyone there. Eight complete communities that shape lives.
Two weeks ago I was with my Executive Edge friends in Orlando where we facilitated a team-building program for student interns to the accounting firm Ernst & Young as we have for the last 13 years. We work really hard, long days – and it’s such interesting work with a wonderful client. But the real reason we go is to spend time with our own team! There are new people on our team every year, but the core has been together since the very beginning, and spending a week with my best friends that I see once a year is among the most special opportunities of my life! Think about it. Thirteen years! The changes we’ve seen in each other! I feel so privileged to be part of this extraordinary community – if only for one week a year!
In between my travels, I sang for the first time with the Finger Lakes Chorale this summer. We rehearsed every Tuesday evening from mid-June to mid-August in preparation for two concerts this past weekend. I’ve sung with groups before and am always struck by how the very act of breathing the same air and belting out the same lyrics brings a group of diverse people together. One hundred thirty people in this group – some who knew each other for years, others new like me – brought together just because we like to sing. Some of us will go to dinner at each others’ houses, but more will just see each other occasionally at the grocery store. Still, for the brief time we were together, we were community.
I believe that humans crave community and all the benefits that come from an interdependence on other humans. Could be why I sought out so many community experiences this summer. Certainly that need for community will be a big reason why I’ll think back so fondly of the summer of 2009! In fact, I believe I’ll go start that reverie right now – in my hammock!
What memories of this summer season will you hold precious?
May you experience the joys of community yourself in the coming week!
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