deep clean, then make pancake batter.

today i thought i didnt have any food work to do except to prepare the angel food cake for dinner. so, i deep cleaned the bakery, meaning move evvvvvverything, wipe it down, and scrub where necessary. i also cleaned the air vents. that was fun. well i was just about to move onto the counters and floors (the last steps in the process) when Brian (food service manager... i dont know if ive introduced him before or not) reminded me that we are having pancakes tomorrow and i have to make the batter (yes, at YL camp there is no box batter.... made from scratch yo) so i did that and then did the counters and floor. but then i had the rest of the day to myself. i took a shower and went down to the coffee shop to write some cards and stuff.

i made a sign thing of colossians 3:14 - "and over all these virtues, put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity."

my good friend and saline teammate hannah hunt has shared this verse before and "wondered" at the idea of "putting on" love... almost like it was a shirt you put on before you put on all your other clothes. and what i see so interesting in this is the part after it.... is that the love you put on binds to form unity. that love is the unifying element of... everything.

i put it up in the intern lounge in hopes that we can read it and think about how a great love that we can find and together put on can bind us together as an intern group and also bind us together with our summer staffers and other people here at camp.

its interesting i was thinking today that this is such a weird social place -- not only camp, but often young life as a while. because we are all "young life" people, we are almost automatically predestined to be friends and get along. especially as a group of interns... we are asked to be all friends and all gel together and work together. and sure, part of that is the job of property staff when they select interns to work together and another part of that is us working on our own to mesh well and to give a little here and there to get along but -- really -- above it all, we are just called to love each other and use that love to bind us, regardless of our personal feelings about one another. we are called to reach out to one another and make an effort to get to know others and not just "be" and expect others to pursue us, becuase thats what true community and love is.

we were playing a game last night -- table topics -- i guess its not really a game, but everyone would go around and choose a card and there is a random question on the card and each person answers their question. one of the questions that someone else got was "what is the difference between who you are and who others percieve you to be." i think it is so interesting to me how that answer is very different for me here and for me at home. i think that, at my core, i am a midtrovert (in between an introvert and an extrovert), funny (if thats concieted, im ok with that, haha) and contemplative. i think that in each place though, im on one side or another of that line - or at least, in how im percieved. its weird to be in a new place and know noone well, and be able to project whoever you want... or, withhold as you try and observe and figure out where you fit in it all. so, i guess now begins the process of trying to find the middle group of that and somehow try and have myself and my percieved self match up. but, i guess you dont necessarily have that much control over that.

anyways, that was perhaps deeper than i intended and it may not stay.

we just went to walmart, and i was so reluctant to do so. its a hard line to dance between principles and necessity of items to purchase with few retailers close.

time for bed before making double chocolate chip cookies and big cookie tomorrow.

love,
me