"Here am I, send me..."

"...There's nothing you can know,
that isn't known.
Nothing you can see,
that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be
that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.
All you need is love,
all you need is love,
All you need is love, love,
love is all you need."
-     Lennon/McCartney

This morning I can't stop singing "all you need is Love, da, dadadada"...but I am thinking, "camp, camp, camp...da, dada, dada!"  Once a hippie dreaming of sitars and "flowers in her hair"...always a hippie!  And for me, the Summer of Love didn't happen in People's Park, in 1969, it's what happens every year at CAMP!! 

It's getting to be that time of year.  The dogwood tree, just beyond the front porch steps, is exploding with pale pink blossoms.  The violets are pushing through the moss in our shady dell of a yard.  And the temperatures are hovering somewhere between a soft chill in the morning and the need for air conditioning in the afternoon.   You can feel the excitement for camp building at the ranches...everywhere...it's in the air.  I can hear Alison whistling for Willow, the vroom of a four-wheeler, the phone ringing in the Hub, and horses sniffing the air for Lach's gentle strength...all the way out here in the Midwest.  

I've shed well-worn cowboy boots (at least until I get to camp), for my ubiquitous Reef flipflops (this year's webbing color is a bright turquoise, one that nicely fills out my Reef wardrobe of lime green and periwinkle from previous years' "collections").

I am chomping at the bit like one of Linda's horses.  Ready to tear into the rodeo arena.  I can feel a cool Arkansas Valley breeze lifting my mane and tickling my nose.  I can't wait.   Camp!!!!!!!  Crowsnest porch on a summer afternoon, the lake, the Hub, Valerie lawn, the rafting bus arriving back from the river...KIDS!!!!!

Alison sent along the metaphysical theme for this summer, and its message couldn't have more closely aligned with some of the spiritual themes I have been working with this year. Each one is an idea I've been cherishing since last summer...inspired "friends" that have done much to reform the way I look at myself and my relationship to others. 

The first is a citation from the book of Isaiah in the Bible:

"Here am I, send me."

I love it!  It is such a perfect springboard for this summer's spiritual journey.  This year I have, literally and figuratively, tried to "just show up" each day with an open heart and willing hands in service to God.  No planning, no agenda...just "Here am I, send me."

And I am discovering that I really have no choices...whatsoever...to make in my life.  If I just show up as "me," the perfect image and likeness of God, it is enough.  It becomes my purpose to honor that identity...in myself and others... and be true to it in every way.  When I do this faithfully, each moment will place its demands upon me to "step up" to that very holy, sacred, grace-infused opportunity, in service to Him.  To love, to think, to give, to pray, to speak, to behold... Him, to only see Him, in everyone and everything.

The next citation from this summer's metaphysical theme is from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy:

"Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit,
bringing us into newness of life…"

Yummmm!!  Let us feel it!!  Not just know it, but feel it...bringing us, carrying us, lifting, permeating, wafting, breathing, moving, dancing, singing, hiking, praying, motivating us...into newness of Life!  

And lastly, from the poem "Feed My Sheep," also by Mary Baker Eddy,

"Shepherd, show me how to go
O'er the hillside steep,
How to gather, how to sow, -
How to feed Thy sheep;
I will listen for Thy voice,
Lest my footsteps stray;
I will follow and rejoice
All the rugged way.

Thou wilt bind the stubborn will,
Wound the callous breast,
Make self-righteousness be still,
Break earth's stupid rest.
Strangers on a barren shore,
Lab'ring long and lone,
We would enter by the door,
And Thou know'st Thine own;

So, when day grows dark and cold,
Tear or triumph harms,
Lead Thy lambkins to the fold,
Take them in Thine arms;
Feed the hungry, heal the heart,
Till the morning's beam;
White as wool, ere they depart,
Shepherd, wash them clean."

Although I know that this entire poem will give form to the next few months of my thinking and praying about camp, today I love, love, love the first stanza's focus on "how."  For me, it's all about the "how."  It doesn't say we should focus on figuring out (or praying through) who to go with, or what to wear, or when to leave, or what to bring...or accumulate.  But how!  Jesus taught us how to go...how to treat one another, how to behave, how to see the world around us, how to heal.   Then we listen for His, God's voice, follow its leadings, and rejoice!  I can do this!!  But I have to start with the "how" of my living...how I "show up" each moment will make all the difference.

I promise, Alison, I will mine these ideas, dig into these truths, immerse myself in their "living waters," drink deeply from this cup. I will show up in the space of this inspiration...completely and wholly...over the next months.  And I promise to do so with supreme joy, to lean into these ideas with total surrender...and to "show up" on purpose.

So to those of you who visit this space occasionally, I am sure these themes will resurface...again and again...in the coming months, as I let them move me towards camp.  I will let them "send me," like a seed on the wind...carried by Spirit, moved by Love.  While I stay focused on the "how" of my showing up each moment. 

If I am living in the "how" of being, I am always perfectly poised in the I AM,  expectant and ready to be picked up by Pneuma, Spirit...and borne into the next moment...and the next...and the next..  Staying in the space of "how," right now...loving, giving, honest, willing, compassionate, non-judgmental, gentle, kind (and the list goes on, and on, and on)...God will take me to camp in the way of His appointing.

But, right now, am I excited to be in this moment of showing up for my life?  Today, am I thrilled to have received this "Summer 2010 Metaphysical Theme" to work with? 

Oh my gosh...even more so than ever before!!! 

I am going to camp!!!!!!!

And since there's:

"Nowhere you can be
that isn't where you're meant to be.

It's easy.
All you need is love..."

All I need is love...da, dada, dada...
All I need is love, love...
Love is an all you need..."

And to be here, right here, in this moment of our living...all we need is love, love, love...
Kate
Kate Robertson, CS

[photo credit: Jessie Brown-Orlet 2009]