On the
first evening of our time together, around the crackling fire, an old story was shared. It was the
story of a village that barely survived a cold and hard winter long ago. The people of
that village believed that if they went through one more cold winter that they
would not be able to survive, so they lived in fear. As another winter
approached the people asked nature to be kind, but the winter was hard yet
again and the people barely survived. So, as in many good stories about the
past, some of the villagers walked to the outer edge of the village to ask the
wise old woman what they were to do. Her answer was to send a young warrior
into the woods to look into the eyes of a wild animal and through that look a
message would be communicated.
Many of
the people of the village were not compelled to look a wild animal into the
eyes and they shrugged away from the idea, they went about their regular
business. But there was one young girl who accepted the challenge. She was
nervous but she knew that her people needed her to face this challenge
courageously.
I won’t
share the rest of the story now… but as the dark of the evening set in we all,
three mentors and nine girls chose to look into the eyes of the wild
courageously for our week together. We each tossed a piece of cedar into the
fire as we spoke about an “edge” that we are facing during the week: challenges
like making new friends, solo time, and sweat lodge. 
As the
night faded into the next day we started to find connections within our group.
Friendships began to form and we played goofy group building and awareness
awakening games together. Laughter began to erupt across the Meadow of Sacred
Groves on Bainbridge Island. One girl said, “Is this my life?!” and another
said, “This camp should be named the Awesomist-Awesome-Camp!” and we were
introduced to what would become our camp motto, “YOLO!” (or “You only live
once!”).
In the
days that followed we participated in meaningful ceremonies, learned some
primitive skills (like starting a fire with a bow-drill, cooking directly on
the coals, and making herbal medicine), and stepped into the woods for solo
time.
On July 4th,
Independence Day, the girls were sent off for their 8-hour solo time in the
woods. As they faced a long day alone in the woods, something that many young
people and adults never experience, the mentors maintained a Sacred Fire in honor
of the girls. The 8 hours may have passed slowly in the woods but all of the
girls met the challenge with grace. And as they returned to the Meadow to the
sound of a celebratory song each girl smiled with pride. After the song ended
and the silence was broken the girls began to chatter, excited to return to
their new friends. The group became a community that night. 
The next
morning we shared solo day stories, this poem called The Forest was written by
Sophie Altaras (age 12):
I sing as
I tiptoe in my mind through the forest softer than you’ll ever know
I can’t
really describe it, the feeling I get when I come here
It’s sort
of a calmness, like in the eyes of a mother deer
The
sunlight shining through the trees makes me come alive
Because
it’s been a long winter when it takes power just to survive
The rest
of the week sailed by quickly. And soon it was time to return to the “village”
of Seattle. Each girl was given the new title of Young Woman and handed a few
small gifts and insights that she could carry into her future. Just as in the
story that we shared on the first day of our time together… through facing the
challenge of staring into the eyes of the wild, a gift was bestowed and has now
been brought back to the village. YOLO!
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