Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Coast to Coast

Today I feel it.
I'm becoming very itchy.
I can feel it coming on...An adventure. As I dropped my mom off this morning at work I looked at the airport terminals in the distance and longed for getting on one of those planes. To go somewhere, anywhere. It's one of those itches that only open roads and a good play list can really scratch (I feel I've read that somewhere before). My car is in California enjoying the fog of the Redwoods...Hopefully a massive branch hasn't fallen on her yet...Hey it could happen and has happened.
 I looked at my calender last night while checking to see what time it was in South Africa and realized that it is only the beginning of my 3rd week home. 6 more weeks...An adventure is long over due. With the rain upon us and no sight of the white stuff anytime soon, it's time I put my feet in motion and do a bit of traveling....But how? Hmmm only time will tell where I'm headed. 

As I woke up this morning from an assortment of very odd dreams one including a friend who claimed her calling was in Canada to backpack...Along with a lot of random waking up and stripping my mocks off because my feet were toasty. Regardless I woke up thinking about a nickname I had been given while in California. By a curly headed kid whom I'm pretty sure knew everything about anything. Wild eyed, heart of gold, Ely. He was about as tall as my hip and had a fiery passion to learn and laugh.

I am terrible when it comes to remembering names. I will be the first to admit it too. I could remember your face till the end of time. Ask me what your name is, donezo. My learning style is visual and tactile learning or repetition.  So when someone tells me their name I often will repeat it both out loud in my head for a while...but will most likely forget again. I think my favorite game to play to learn names (that I can't often do in small groups but still participate in my head) is Names in Motion. You pick a motion or an adjective that describes you. That adjective must also begin with the same letter as your first name. You do the motion and repeat the word with your name.

My first day with Ely in our awesome animal group, the Grizzly's, I came up with "Nimbly-NEPA" as I wiggled around, everyone else repeated after me and we slowly worked our way around the circle. Some kids didn't fully comprehend the concept of picking something with the same first letter as their names or even an adjective. Like Ninja, Reuben... But I still remember him! Elegant Ely was the final in our circle. We quickly moved from our game to our hike underneath the massive giants that shaded our path to help us make awesome discoveries. As we walked up the trail around the corner of a round redwood, Ely came running up to me saying, "Nimbly!! Nimbly!! Look what I found!" As I laughed out loud  he showed me with pride the awesome piece of fungus he had discovered on a dead damp stump. Witches Jelly to be specific. He remembered my name!!...Well something that relates to my name. I corrected him but he called me Nimbly for the rest of the week. I was totally fine with it.

Later that week his Dad being one of the counselors, decided to tag along for our Geology and Stream class for the morning. Turns out Ely knows so much because his Dad knows a lot about Geology. While we went over tectonic plates and how the rock cycle moves, I had the Grizzly's split into their cabin groups with their counselors for a challenge. They must come up with a 30 second skit to explain how the rock cycle works and what it is. GO! As I was walking around from group to group to check on how their ideas were coming along, Ely's Dad came up to me and began to tell me about why Ely knows so much about geology specifically. I wasn't very surprised about why because this man was a rock enthusiast. Enjoying geology to the fullest. Hey good for him to have a great hobby. However, it went far deeper than that. It was a fairly new passion. Not even as old as 10 year old Ely. John, the Dad, began to tell me about how shortly after Ely was born, him and his wife took a trip to Hawaii. They took a hike to to the mouth of a volcano that had been dormant for over 100 years. While they were at the mouth, they heard a tremendous rumble. then an explosion. He explained that in front of them this volcano was errupting and with out gentle warning. Boulder sized pieces of debris were ejecting from the pressures filled belly of this beast and they were witnessing it. As everyone else was trying not to panic and find cover, they began to slide down the outside of the volcano, Looking up John said there was a massive boulder heading straight towards them. There was no way to get out of the way. Then out of nowhere the boulder took another path went a completely different direction mere feet from him and his wife. He looked me square in the eye and told me it was something not of this world. Something or someone glorious.

I had forgotten I was teaching class. I had forgotten I was in California. I had forgotten that anything existed. I had chills while John went on to tell me that through the grace of God him and his wife were still alive to return home to take care of their little boy, their only child whom at the time was only 8 months old. Because of that, Ely's passion for rocks from his Dad makes it all the more incredible. Ely loves when his Dad tells the story. And I'm so joyful for that friendly reminder of how righteous our creator is. How often we sometimes forget when we are so focused on the world itself and only what is right in front of us. That week I taught the kids so much about so many cool things of this earth and with out even asking, learned so much from those kids. Both about the earth and about smiles, laughter and enthusiasm.
I can't ever forget Elegant Ely and his Dad. So I believe I never will.

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