Perceptive Prose

It's been nearly 30 years since I was a camp counselor at Luther Point Bible Camp just outside of Grantsburg, Wis., a mere 20 minutes from home.

I was a counselor and a life guard there the summers of 1987 and 1988. Met some amazing people and made some meaningful memories. Just like college friends, I have stayed in touch with a handful of other staffers through the years. (Thanks, in part, to Facebook!)

One of the counselors, Mike, used to post a poem almost daily in the staff lounge. We recently reconnected and he was asking friends to provide three words/phrases and he'd write a poem.Today, he blessed me with some personal prose based on my three: Faith, Journey, Empty Nest.

I want
What is best
For my children.
But when they journey
Fast and far,
Leaving me
In an empty nest,
I want to get in my car,
Travel over the tar,
Through sun and stars
And hold them
One more time.
But
I don't.
Because I learned
To have faith
In their
Intelligence,
Honesty
And wit.
So I don't hover,
Or follow.
But
It's hard to quit
Wanting
To.

How perfectly appropriate! He is still as talented and insightful as ever. I can imagine he is a wonderful pastor and has a special way of connecting with each member of his flock in western Wisconsin.

It inspires me to keep on writing... and to track down the poem he wrote about me 3 decades ago. You know how I never throw anything away. It has to be here somewhere!