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Saturday, April 22, 2006
Elizabeth Enas wrote the following while sitting in the library. She said somehow, this person who walked by reminded her of ECHO. I thought it was beautiful, and it brought tears to my eyes. I hope some of you appreciate it as I did... "As I sit in the M. C. Library, someone walks by, and somehow I smell astrange, yet recognizable whiff: the distinctive scent of ECHO. I wish Iknew what it was - that tangy, summery, invigorating breeze. Maybe it’s a combination of sunscreen, sunbaked mulch, deodorant, bug spray, chlorine, blossoming fruit trees, and flip-flops. Whatever the scent is, it makes me want to drive a golf-cart as fast asit can down a dusty, gravel road... I want to feel the breeze against my sweaty, sunburned face, to be sillywith my friends who are just as sunburned and sweaty as me... I want to go to Wal-Mart again with a group of twenty kids, all laughingas we try to find the best deals in candy, white T-shirts, ice cream, andcream soda... I want to bodysurf in the Gulf again, as we endeavor to keep our camerasfrom getting wet while snapping as many pictures as possible... I want to sit on a picnic bench, trying to catch a breeze from the noisyfans as I write in my quiet time notebook... I want to drink the sickeningly sweet strawberry and chocolate milk thatcooled us off when we took a ‘water’ break... I want to realize again how refreshing a cool, clean shower can be, whenyou've been working hard in the hot sun and your body is filthy... I want to hang out in the air-conditioned office, singing along to Weezer and the radio, playing Memory, or just chatting about anything andeverything under the sun... I want to sit under the tin roof of the tool shop, listening to thetorrential downpour and taking a little breather from the work... I want to lie in a sleeping bag on a hard floor again, the variouswhispered conversations lulling me to sleep... I want to sit in a packed van for four days, laughing, teasing,discussing, playing games, listening to music, singing psalms, sleeping,and eating... All the memories that come back, after such an small thing as smelling afamiliar scent. It takes me a moment to realize that I'm several hundredmiles away, that I'm not in the hot, humid farm ECHO, but in a quiet,air-conditioned library. I wish my mind could take my body with it as itflutters back to the warm, wonderful memories of the last two summers." And here I am, even further away... some of these same ECHO memories bring both joy and pain as I realize that the time is coming around once again that others will share similar experiences. And I can't take part in them. Though, rather than sit and cry, I know I need to instead be thankful for the times that I had there. Just the simplist little memory from my ECHO trips brings a smile to my face... I hope that God immensly blesses this summer's ECHO trips. May you who are going work hard, learn a lot, and come back with the same huge smile on your face that I had when I returned. (And you who went last summer, don't even think about saying something like, "What smile!? You girls were bawling when we got back!" )  ECHO 2004  ECHO 2005 Song of the post ~ Beverly Hills Now how many memories does THIS song bring back!? I would have put "We Are All on Drugs", but I don't want to offend anyone.... Charity | 8:00 am Comments-[ comments.] |
My life is not my own, for I belong to Christ.