Archive for July, 2011

Hello Again Blog Readers!

Turns out, it can be much harder to get out of the woods and back to a computer than I thought it would be. So, where are we?

Our July Session has come to an end and the August Session campers have arrived. This all happened in a whirlwind of powerful moments, some sadness, and, of course, immense amounts of joy!

I wanted to take some time to tell y’all a little bit about how we close out a session. Just like the beginning of the summer, we hold a Friendship Fire. This is a time for our community to come together. This is time in reflection, rather than the anticipation we feel at the start of something new.

I truly love the closing Friendship Fire because of one special moment. That moment is when all of our community members have the opportunity to speak on behalf of Flying Cloud. This is often when we, as staff, realize all the work we have been doing has not been in vain. The lessons we sought to impress upon these youths have in some way broken through and we have made a powerful impact on their lives. This summer, more than any summer I have been a part of, I saw something truly special happen. The campers started using language and verbalizing their experience in the same way the staff speak.  Here they were, expressing themselves with such maturity and self-awareness  like I had never seen before. To share with you, here are some quotes from the night:

“Flying Cloud accelerates my growth.”

“Flying Cloud encourages me not just to be myself, but to seek within myself the person I want to be.”

“Flying Cloud showed me that there are so, so many ways to be a man.”

And the last one I want to share with you is an extension of a standard line. Every summer, a camper will say Flying Cloud is my second home. This year I heard this gem:

“I used to think Flying Cloud was like a second home. Now I know the truth though. Flying Cloud is my real home.”

These are just four comments from the 30 kids who chose to speak on behalf of Flying Cloud. We felt like that was exactly how we needed to wrap the first-session bundle.  I feel safe saying it was a session deserving such a wonderful close.

But, with the closing of the first session, we were thrown right into the start of another!

Sunday’s cooling temperatures (a much needed relief from some serious heat and humidity!) heralded the arrival of our August session campers. In a interesting twist on enrollment patterns, second session brought us 18 campers who have never been to Flying Cloud before. As I think I have mentioned in the past, sharing Flying Cloud with others is just about my most favorite thing to do. So rest assured, I am psyched for this fresh community. We open our August session with a Friendship Fire, just like we did for the July session.

This time though, we already have the essential tool of fire. What we are missing though is the metaphorical coal that we light the fire of our community from for second session. Friendship Fire is that coal. As usual, we gathered in Kahonkahona (our ceremony lodge) as dusk settled on the clearing. To symbolize the gathering of individuals into a new community, we brought a small bed of coals on which to build a fire. As our Camper Leaders (the four campers who have shown leadership and responsibility) orient the new campers to the Flying Cloud ethos, each camper or staff (both new and full season), placed a stick on that fire. Slowly, those coals brought that wood to flame and light was shed on the darkness of the approaching night, on our new group. Here too, the campers and staff share a piece of themselves. We asked some questions and  the most powerful one was, “What do you want to share with your brothers at Flying Cloud this session?”

“A sense of responsibility.”

“My passion for nature.”

“A sense of happiness and love.”

There were many more, but these were the ones that stood out to me.  I believe these three quotes do a fitting job of representing what it means to live at Flying Cloud.

I know this post was a long one and I have rambled on for quite some time now. What can I say is Flying Cloud inspires me, especially this summer. I would like to share that in all of the summers I have spent at Flying Cloud, I have never had as much fun as I am having this year. And I am not the only person saying this. I am hearing similar sentiments from campers and staffers alike. If I could summarize briefly why I feel like we are enjoying ourselves,  I would say this:

We seem to have found an uncanny ability (within the relationships between our staff and other staff at F&W camps, our staff and our campers, and our campers and other F&W campers) to access a passion and appreciation for all of what is great about childhood. These range from silly games to intentional recognition of the personal journey we are all on, whether this is the  paths we walk alone or the trails we walk with one another.

Thanks for all of your support and for lending us your boys.

Be well,

~FF~

Hello Again Flying Cloud Blog Readers!

First, just let me apologize for being a couple days late on this one. Our long trips returned this weekend and we jumped straight into another Naming Ceremony, so suffice it to say, I have been a bit busy. In fact, I had become so lost in woods that I didn’t even realize that the weekend had come and gone and that I was two days behind my normal schedule of blog posts. All that being said, I think having this new set of names to share with y’all is well worth the wait.

As much as I love all of our naming ceremonies, I especially love the ones with so many guests. Last night, we had over 200 people join us at Flying Cloud to honor our newly named brothers.  Our guests were campers at other Farm & Wilderness camps who joined us as part of our all-camps Interdependence Day festivities. It was a pretty wild party and although it’s a big fire in a big circle, we came pretty close to overfilling it!

So, please join me in welcoming all these newly named Flying Clouders. May they always carry this experience close to their heart and know our village in the woods supports them:

Coyote Stands

Wolf Tree

Wolverine Loves the Sky

Caribou Sings

Owl Tends the Tide

Equinox Wave

Wildfire Heart

Raven and Bear

Moonsong Rain Tracker

This is a beautiful set of names for a wonderful set of young men. For those parents out there, my apologies that I can’t let you know your son’s name in this online space. Rest assured, you will find out soon though. Our lodge staff members are already hard at work writing letters to y’all about the experience your son has had at Flying Cloud.

When you hear from me next, we will be stepping into our second session! We are so excited to have all the new brothers joining us in just one short week. Until then, we have a number of powerful experiences and moments coming for our first session community and I look forward to telling you more about those soon!

Be well and much love Brothers and Sisters,
~FF~

Hello Again Blog Readers,

I hope you all are doing as well in the outside world as we are up in the Clearing. I thought camp was running about as well as it could, but I am overjoyed to be sharing with y’all that things are only getting better!

The staff have been leading some incredible activities and creating a buzz among the campers.  Our hide tanning is off to a great start, we are about halfway through processing our first deer hide of the summer. Our beef jerky has been getting smoked and is almost ready to devour. We even had some campers lead leather pouch making today! I spoke with the counselor after the session and he said that not only did the campers do a great job teaching the other campers, but they had fun teaching as well!

The really exciting news of the week though is that eight of our community members have been ushered officially into our ranks by receiving their Flying Cloud names. A Flying Cloud name is a powerful gift to receive. The name represents all the best qualities that the community has seen in you - but there is so, so much more in a name. As you spend time with your new name,  the meaning of your name begins to grow. Over the years you might even forget why you were given your name in the first place. As a Flying Clouder matures, so does their name. This is something to aspire to, a name for the person you always wanted to become. The name conveys your best self. In my mind, the Flying Cloud Naming Ceremony is the most powerful experience of every camper’s first summer with us.

Here are the eight new Flying Cloud names that were given out just a couple of days ago:

Sunfire Dreamer

Lightning Brother Gathers

Glacier Dawn

Peregrine Shines

Ember Lights the Nest

Summer Zephyr Smiles

Cougar Walks the Canyon

Lynx Holds the Ocean

From this day forward, among their Flying Cloud Brothers and all their friends and family within the greater Farm & Wilderness Community, these young men now go by these new names. I could not be more proud of them. For the parents reading this, don’t worry your son’s new name will be explained in a letter that you receive when they leave Flying Cloud and will share a bit about your son’s experience with us.

Well, I’m already starting to get that strange feeling that I’ve been sitting in front of a screen for a little too long now. Time to head back to the woods! From the Flying Cloud community to all of you -

Much love,

~FF~

So we have reached the end of week one. The week seems short because our circle was only completed on Thursday, but,  wow, did we have a lot happen!!!

The first couple of days spent at Flying Cloud, whether you are new or returning, is all about inspiration and orientation. We started out the first night with a good comfort meal - chili and corn bread. Once every had thoroughly filled themselves, we transitioned into a very important event.

We hold our inaugural ceremony on the first night of every summer, called our Friendship Fire. This moment is of the utmost importance as the rest of the summer is dependent on it’s success. Our Firekeeper (an experienced and older camper selected the previous summer) creates the fire, which will burn through the entire summer, by using the bow drill method. Bow Drill is one style of friction fire (the creation of fire by rubbing two sticks together! Bow Drill was a common method used by many primitive cultures, including the Abenaki, who lived in the same forests where Flying Cloud is located. If you search “bow drill” on the Internet you can find out more information on how the skill works.

Once the fire has been started, we introduce the core values of Flying Cloud. These are: Simplicity and Isolation, Common Gender, Honoring the Land, Honoring the Spirit, and Respect and Community. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Flying Cloud Ceremony if we didn’t have a chance for people to share. We asked the campers and staff two questions:

“What do you want to bring to Flying Cloud and share with your brothers?”

“What do you want to gain or learn from your brothers at Flying Cloud?”

It was so wonderful to hear their answers. Some of the common themes included bringing openness, a passion for nature, and love for each other. People wanted to take away new friends, new skills, and a sense of belonging.

After the ceremony concluded, I particularly enjoyed sitting on the edge of the clearing as all the candles dispersed through the clearing. Slowly, all of the tipis and yomes began to glow as fires were lit. As the evening drifted well into night, the murmur of voices faded and once again silence returned to the clearing. But it doesn’t last long!

The following day was about learning how we live at Flying Cloud. This includes knife, blade, and fire training, some get-to-know-you games, and pumping water and breaking up fire wood! In the afternoon, we broke up into smaller groups and learned the boundaries of camp and all of the cool spots to visit like Magic Springs (a natural spring that ushers forth from a crack in a giant boulder deposit by glaciers tens of thousands of years ago).

Moving through the rest of the week, we have had ample time to spend as a community and in small groups. We went well beyond Flying Cloud on Saturday for day trips. We traveled to the top of our own little Saltash Mountain, down to the Lake Ninevah area, visited the Lower Camps to use the challenge course, and our biggest day trip - a 15 mile trek across Shrewsbury, Killington, and Pico Peaks!

We have ton’s more planned for the upcoming week but I’ll make sure to let you know about that next weekend! Hope you are well and as always if you ever have any questions please feel free to contact me at Zach@farmandwilderness.org.

Although I know that seems weird since when we last saw each other we were deep in the Green Mountains, e-mail is the best form of contact. I try to make it out of the woods to work on staying in touch every 24-48 hours and will get back to you as soon as possible.

Be well and much love,

~FF~