A leaf the bright green of a granny smith apple fluttering to the ground drew my attention. The summer breeze delivered to my feet the perfect piece to finish the nature scape I would artfully arrange to capture through the lens of my handmade Quaker Oats box pinhole camera.

Deep in concentration I played at discovering the perfect order in which to display the treasures I had collected for my photograph. Branch-leaf-berries-grass, berries-leaf-grass-branch — I finally settled on the layout that spoke loudest to me: grass-branch-leaf-berries. This was my universe today. The next day it would shift to acting as Mother Nature in my first theatrical production. The day after that, I would put pencil to homemade paper and write a poem about the steadfast tree with its bright-green leaves that beckoned with its gentle wind song and its broad, shade-giving branches.

This summertime at day camp gifted me the freedom at seven to explore, to create, to stretch out in the great wide open. It gave me a first glimpse at autonomy. It introduced the sheer joy of extending my arms outward, throwing my head back, and twirling under Heaven.

Those were the carefree days of youth, and I have reached back through time for that feeling often as an adult. Though it has been many years since I twirled, I still make a point of walking among the trees, closing my eyes, and focusing on the leaves rustling in the breeze. I still look up on blue-sky days and refuse to take the sight for granted. I still wonder at the powerful pairing of nature and camp — the majesty and fortitude of trees and the inner strength and curiosity that camp taught me.

It has been years, too, since I wrote a poem. But a stanza from poet Mary Oliver’s “When I Am Among the Trees” springs to mind when I think of camp these days — and how I hope the sight of a simple tree can still unlock wonder for today’s campers and in its quiet way inspire growth and resilience:

Around me the trees stir in their leaves 
and call out, “Stay awhile.” 
The light flows from their branches. 
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say, 
“and you too have come 
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled 
with light, and to shine.”

Reference
Oliver, M. (2017). Devotions: The selected poems of Mary Oliver. New York, NY: Penguin Press.

Marcia Ellett is editor in chief of ACA’s Camping Magazine.