This summer I spent time in a few sacred places. I was blessed to be able to spend part of three sessions at Camp Alkulana. I was there with some of the best people. Counselors, nurses, crafters, cooks, gardeners, and campers. I got to experience some sacred times in some sacred spaces.
From morning until evening, there is someone in the kitchen below the dining hall at Camp Alkulana, fixing breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In that kitchen there is a table. Vegetables are chopped, ingredients are mixed, food is prepared at this table. Also at this table, staff sits and talks, and shares a meal. In a corner of the kitchen there is a sink. I got to spend some time there washing dishes. Meals come together, dishes are dirtied, and cleaned. A sacred mess in a sacred space
In the craft shack, next to the creek, there are picnic tables where rain sticks were made, tee shirts were painted, and thread was stabbed with sand turned into felted art. There was also talking, listening, laughing, just being. It is sacred creation in a sacred space.
The big lodge is a big place with big happenings. Staff talent shows bring out the imagination of the counselors. There are balls and hula hoops. It is a building that was taken down from another place and rebuilt on the grounds of Camp Alkulana. Generations of campers have played there. It is a big room that can be noisy and crazy. It hosts sacred sounds in a sacred space.
The creek runs through the middle of camp, quite literally. You have to cross it to get from cabin row to the field, the swim hole, the tower, It is crossed on the bridge, and over the dam. It flows next to the craft shack, and Piney Park. Some people walk in it, some people swim in it, some people just watch it. It is sacred water, a sacred space.
On a hill overlooking the creek sits the Lantern Lodge, more commonly known as the retreat house. There are three bedrooms where cooks, crafters, and other helpers sleep, two living rooms, and a kitchen with a big farm table. You too can find respite and retreat there, just let us know if you are interested. It is a place for sacred rest, a sacred space.
In the field are the campfire logs. They are logs that surround the campfire that burns each night that camp is in session. It is where campers gather to receive their patches. It is where camp songs are passed on to new generations of campers. It is sacred singing, in a sacred space.
A tradition of Camp Alkulana is to write a promise that you want to keep in the coming year, a promise to yourself. I will be a better brother. I will pray. I will read the Bible. I will be nicer to myself. I won’t get angry at bugs. I won’t hit my brother– until we get off of the bus. On the last night at camp, the campers and staff gather at Piney Park to say these promises aloud. The slips of paper on which they are written are mailed with campers along with letters. They are sacred words, spoken in a sacred space.
by SaraAnne Burgess, Camper & Family Liaison