So many things to do and so little time

Well, I think that this will be a post full of a whole bunch of things. Fun things, happy things, and sad things.

Communication with Technology
First of all I must say when I get home I feel so useless, it doesn't really matter what it is that I am coming home from, as long as I have been gone for any amount of time I feel like I spend my life catching up on everything... but it seems as though I catch up with technology not with life. I spend so much time on my computer, checking emails, looking at the pictures my friends have put up, reading through blogs, checking the news, looking at webpages, downloading pictures, charging my ipod. It all just throws itself on top of me, especially when I am coming back from someplace where I am completely away from technology, and then... I sit here and soak myself in it again. It makes me feel very empty sometimes, and yet here I am writing on more technology, my blog.

Outpost 007
Next I guess would be camp, I'm home and extremely tired, but re-couping. We got home Saturday around noon and then Joy, Dad and I went sailing the rest of the day. Then on Sunday I was gone pretty much all day so, consequently I didn't wake up until around 10:30 today. Camp was amazing though. Outpost in my opinion is the best camp at Calvin Crest, as long as you can brave the dirt, hiking and mosquitos. It was an awesome week. A little challenging being as we had some boys that were a bit rough and did a lot of fighting, but that changed a lot by the end of the week. There was a lot of growth for the kids I think, it was beautiful to watch them change in such a short amount of time, and I pray that when they go home that they won't change back. We did lots of hiking, swimming, hanging out, playing cards, singing, getting bit by mosquitos, sleeping in the dirt, and just having fun. We had a great trip up to Iron lakes on thursday, a great hike in and some lunch then swimming, diving, swimming, diving. It was beautifully clear as usual and just a little bit of snow still up at the top of the mountain. Gorgeous. Pictures will be up later today methinks. I was a little bit worried about our group being as they basically all came with Trinity (only 6 weren't) but it was pretty good. Everyone became great friends and not everyone that came with Trinity actually go to to church there so they still got to hang out with new friends. I was surprised by the group too, there wasn't much complaining, or at least not as much as I thought there would be (there is quite a bit of hiking). I would definately put this week as my best experience being a counselor at Calvin Crest so far. Yup, yup, all in all a great week.

Gymnastics
Well, apparently my toe is doing better. It got a little bit sore on some of the hikes at Calvin Crest but it didn't really hurt so I think it's doing good. I did my first round-off yesterday that I have done in almost 5 weeks I think it is now. That made me incredibly excited because I have completely missed gymnastics even though I've been doing it a lot I haven't been able to tumble at all. Hmmm... yes, makes me very happy. I have 12 days until my first gymnastics competition. Well, it's not really a meet, it's only the practice meet, but I'm still really nervous about it because I have been gone for a week, and haven't done my floor routine for five weeks, and I still can't vault, but all shall be well. Hopefully.

A philosophy on photography
Well, recently as I was looking at some pictures it struck me that I think of some people who take pictures as just that, people who take pictures, and others as photographers. I haven't quite decided what the difference is yet though. I think part of it has to do with taking pictures because it looks cool, or taking pictures to capture beauty. The other part of it is how many pictures they take. But, I must say that its hard for me to enjoy some places without my camera. THat's why I made it a point not to carry my camera around at Ashram, I needed to just get the imaginary picture frame out of my head and enjoy life without thinking about how my life would look in a picture. Yeah, I don't know if that made sense to anyone, but that's ok if it doesn't.

The Blessings of Life
I have been struggling a lot in the past year and a half or so with the concept of death. I don’t know if there really is a way to completely understand death, even if you have seen it first hand, because we can never know what it is to die… cuz then we’d be dead. There are very few people who have ever been dead and come back to life, and I am not one of them, so I really don’t know what it’s like. It seems as though the degenerate nature of our bodies has only in recent years become something real. I know that my mind cannot grasp the reasons, though there are many, that there cannot be an eternity here on earth, or even that there cannot be a few more years, a few more months… a few more minutes. Yet the pain lingers on, forever as it seems. Maybe that’s how it supposed to be, I don’t know. But my heart still breaks when I look at those I love and see that they are slowly slipping, becoming older, forgetting.

Well... I think that's it for now. I love you all and miss you lots and lots too.