Camp YavnehCamp Yavneh
September 24, 2020

Reflecting on 5780

Author - Bil Zarch

I’ve been dreaming of camp a lot these days. I miss the smell of the pine trees. I bet some of you didn’t know this, but there are many mornings during the summer that I wake up early and take a walk by myself. It’s during those jaunts around camp that I feel so connected to the beauty around me. I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to be there at that precise time – quiet, reflective, surrounded by New Hampshire’s summer landscape. Camp is about living in the moment, and these mornings help keep me in the present. These moments remind me just how lucky I am to have this opportunity to lead Yavneh, and how easily it can be taken for granted.

 

I can’t adequately describe to you what it felt like not to be at camp this summer. When people asked, I would often use words like “bummed,” “sad”, and “unreal.” Now that we are in the fall, I’ve had time to reflect, and the void is very real and hard to fill.

 

On Rosh Hashanah, we had the opportunity to start anew and that is what I have decided to do. It’s time to close summer 2020/5780 and all that it encompassed. Now is the time to get excited about Kayitz 2021. It promises to be a truly outstanding time! Undoubtedly, it will be different, but I know my staff and my campers are ready for everything that we’ll be able to enjoy together in Northwood. Masoret (tradition) at camp is both sacred and constantly evolving – there is never one summer that is exactly like the last. In nine months, we will get to live in the moment again and create new memories surrounded by our camp’s beauty. I, for one, can’t wait!

 

G’mar Chatimah Tovah.

May you be sealed in the good book.

Bil