Soak it up

I took the time to take a little walk today, exploring a small meadow near camp. It's a little late in the season for many wildflowers, but there were some.

There was also lots of grass. Have you ever thought about grass? How many different kinds there are? So many colors, so many different shapes on top, some of them so delicate and lacy. Have you noticed how it bends in the wind and changes color as it shifts? Have you noticed how verdant the world looks with a rich layer of grass covering the ground and how barren it looks in the absence of grass? Even brown grass is better than no grass. Do you ever hear the wind sighing through the grass and feel a sharp pang of longing and loneliness? Have you ever noticed how grass is the first thing to come back after a fire, restoring loveliness to a burned and barren land? Have you ever seen grass covering an old ruin, concealing the places where people once lived, loved, worshipped? I love wildflowers, but I'm coming to love grass more and more. Its beauty is more subtle, but can also be more poignant.

It also is incredibly difficult to photograph well.

In addition to the grass I saw numerous bugs, including thousands of mosquitoes with single-minded desire to suck out all my blood. They failed. I also saw this cute little bug. I didn't manage to get a very good picture of him, but he was pretty cool.

Time here is short, both time at camp and time in Montana. I am excited to have a break from camp, and I'm excited to go back to Israel, but I know I will miss so many things here when I leave. Things like flowers, grass, and bugs; mountains, rivers and rain. And of course the people. So for now I'll try to soak up all that I can from my beautiful Montana, and enjoy as much time as I can with my dear friends and family before heading back to beautiful Israel and my other friends there.

How lovely

I just had a delightful experience.

"And what" you might ask, "was that experience?" Or you might not ask, but I will tell you anyway.

First, though, I must inform you of a couple relevant circumstances.
1. The main "caretaker" (for lack of a better term) on campus has a wife and two daughters, all of whom live on campus. The daughters are named Luna and Lamara, and are (I believe) 9 and 8 years old, respectively.
2. A small orange kitty has recently been "adopted" by some students here on campus. It was in pretty poor shape, but has been showered with some care, and is now doing better and has become at least marginally tame.

This afternoon I was outside, sitting under our grape arbor, enjoying the cool breeze and warm sunshine, listening to some Celtic music, occasionally catching a whiff of the fragrance of dying roses, and reading about the history of Israel, when these two circumstances converged in a way that was simply marvelous.

The two girls had just gotten home from school (I greeted them) and immediately commenced to search for the small orange kitty (who someone decide to name "Francis"). The found him and proceeded to hold him (very badly), pass him back and forth, ask me to guard him while they got food for him, attempted to "force" him to eat, chased him as he ran away, and the continued to search for him and try to get him back until they had to leave for a meal. This may not seems like a delightful experience to you, but really it was. It was so similar to the dramas I've seen acted out with the kitties at camp, over and over. It just made me laugh and remember that kids are the same, wherever you are in the world. And come to think of it, kitties are pretty much the same too. :)