Last summer I visited camp on a Family Overnight. After dinner, the raucous crowd of children and their families settled into a circle around a campfire. Don posed the questions, “What does everyone feel about conflict?” “What are ways that we can transform hard times into opportunities where we can grow and learn from each other?” In the Quaker way, one person spoke at a time, when they felt moved to share something. Children and adults took turns sharing their feelings about conflict in all areas of their worlds – from sharing at camp, at home or at school, to worldly conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan.

With such elegance and grace, children matched their own words and feelings to conflict-resolution possibilities – which included pea-shooters instead of guns (aiming at bellies-below only, of course), taking turns talking by using talking-sticks to discuss problems (one at a time), crying together when we are sad or scared, and being able to step aside when your opinion isn’t shared by the broader group. If only such sophistication was shared in the international political and economic realms. If only adults could take a break from our seriousness to imagine such simple possibilities.

Nature Camps is an idyllic retreat. A place for healing, re-connecting, to slow down enough to allow growing and exploring, where everyone can find their niche, their strengths, and be reminded of their innate goodness. I’m so grateful for my carefree years there, and for the millions of ways those days shaped the adult I am now. I’ll have to go back this summer for a visit.

--- Mandy Koch