Alford Lake Camp

Guest Blog by Whitney McMullan

As I sit here and reflect on my younger summers at camp, listening to the ALC CD for inspiration, I remember one thing distinctly. “I can walk ALL over camp in the dark without tripping!” Which was always followed by a hum of “You can? How? Don’t you get lost? Or trip?” I was proud. I knew where every rock and protruding root lay across the uneven ground.

Today I have a new perspective for my night walking talent. As a Bungalow counselor I always took my flashlight on night rounds so that I would not startle the counselors sitting outside the tents on duty. I began to notice that I had become clumsy and tripped over everything. This was odd, I thought, as I had always had a steady step without my flashlight and simply the blanket of stars that covered the Maine sky.

It was then that I realized something. When one walks with a flashlight, they are only able to see inside the bright circle created by the light. Everything outside of the light is too dark to make out. I was only able to see within the constraints of light, the rest was just darkness to me.

I switched my light off for the remainder of my walk. At first I could see nothing, but slowly my eyes adjusted. Not only could I see what the light would have shown, but I could make out everything that was surrounding me. You see, ALC encourages you to see beyond the specks of light; the familiar and safe images of life and allows you to walk outside of the light so as not to miss a single piece of beauty, even if it is a dark image. The point is, you can see it all.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 16th, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under ALC Families, Alumni, Camp, Camp Staff, Guest Camp Blogger. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.