It never ceases to amaze me how long the line is at the keylog ceremony. The keylog ceremony happens each week at our Friday Night Service. This week’s theme was “Being Yourself,” and featured music by Cat Stevens, Jim Croce and Taylor Swift. Oli Katz gave a great sermonette about his own journey with music, his discomfort playing in front of others, and the self-confidence that has come from pursuing his passion. And when it was time for the keylog ceremony, even though it was the first of the session, nearly every camper and staff elected to stand up in front of the whole camp to throw a stick into the fire to express their gratitude. The speeches come in all shapes and sizes as campers thank their cabinmates, counselors, parents, siblings, and all sorts of people for being good friends, good listeners, or just having done something nice for them. I think the sheer quantity of participants speaks volumes about how comfortable our campers feel with the North Star community.
And gratitude builds resilience. By taking time to acknowledge the good things in life, we are training our brains to see the positive. Then, when things are hard, we have already created the pathways to acknowledge the good in our lives. (If you’re looking for a great read while the kids are away, check out Dr. Deborah Gilboa’s new book
From Stressed to Resilient. She worked with our staff last year and it has some great tips and exercises in the book). We are so lucky to be able to share in this practice each Friday Night while enjoying the beautiful sunset of the Council Ring.
Today was the third and final day of the first set of projects. Tomorrow the boys will switch to three different instructional activities that they had signed up for on the first night. We also had our first Green-White event of 2nd session, with an afternoon game of North Star Ball - a variation of Capture the Flag where instead of one flag per side, you have to get several balls to your team’s side to win a round. The teams worked hard on their strategies and it paid off with a very fun game!
Today’s Grace:
"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
