When I first heard that this summer’s theme was “Walkin’ in Wonder,” I was immediately excited. This past year, I had already been thinking about how useful walking can be in allowing time to process thoughts and move your body. I had also already been doing my fair share of “Wonder Walks” during my time on SST (Study-Service Term) in Ecuador as a time to reflect on the experience I was having.

With the change in scenery at Camp, I was able to experience wonder walks not just by myself, but with kids from all different age groups and levels of excitement for hikes in nature. I found that I was surprisingly excited to take my campers on nature hikes, more so than I might have been last summer (my experience with walking in Ecuador may have something to do with that). I found that I experienced a real joy walking through the woods with my campers, particularly during Junior High and Pre-Junior week.

For Outdoor Adventure Day Junior High week, I started the day off with a great sense of dread. We were planning for heavy rain that day and I was NOT looking forward to leading the scavenger hunt, not to mention having any openness to finding wonder during it. The rains came and I held out hope that the hike might be cancelled. It was not, so I set out with my nine campers into the pouring rain. Spirits weren’t low, but they most definitely weren’t high either.

Luckily, Lucas had also come along to help with the group. About halfway through our hike, as we were debating stopping early, we saw Toby’s cabin joyfully jaunting through the rain singing “Walkin’ in the Light!” We were inspired and thought, “how lucky are we that we have the worship leader along!” So, we started to sing and sang as many theme songs as we could remember from past years as well as a few others. Our hike was doubled in length and we wound up being one of the last cabins back. Later, several of them mentioned that as their highlight, and it showed me how much energy and enthusiasm can change any outcome.

During Pre-Junior week, the wonder I found came to me more obviously. I just really enjoyed being able to shape the ways that the Pre-Junior campers viewed the nature and camp, as it was many of their first times here. Walking around the trails, showing them the fen, and even pointing out the petrified wood “Oomsquash Monster” in the prairie by the bees was really inspiring to me because I felt a greater sense of wonder when I imagined myself seeing all of this beauty for the first time. It was a good reminder for me that wonder doesn’t “run out,” but is abundant when we continue to change our perspectives and search for the less obvious.

“Walkin’ in Wonder” has taught me to keep my eyes open even when I think I’ve seen all there is to see. I really don’t want to forget the importance of wonder as I move back into the constant rotation of college again. As for the walking part, I’ll remember that it’s both peaceful to walk by yourself and vital to experience walks, both literal and figurative, with those around you.