2011 Till Now

I need to get some thoughts out of my heart.

Through 2011 until now life has been crazy.  No problems to speak of, no major challenges, but incredibly crazily busy.  I would be talking to someone that knew a piece of what I was involved with, and they would comment that they didn't know how I could do it all.  In the back of my mind I would be listing off all the other things they didn't even know about.

Not saying I'm wonder woman or super mom.  Probably just some variety of crazy.

But two big things have come to an end.  On one hand it's nice to not have the responsibility and all that being "in charge" entails, but on another hand, there are so many wonderful opportunities to learn and stretch with each.  I will especially miss all the people.  I'm very happy sitting in my little corner of the world all by myself and my family, and really probably do that more than I should.  But I love being around great people and learning from them, and both of those involved being around and learning from a lot of really amazingly great people.

Before actually coming to "the end" of each I felt like I was ready, that I had had my time and did what I needed to do.  But both endings were a lot harder than I thought.  Hard to close a chapter of your life, especially knowing that with one of these things I will never get to do it again.

I believe that this life is about becoming, so why these things at this time?  What have I learned?

1.  It's always my job to care.  I don't need a special responsibility to do that.
2.  It's far less about who you are when you walk into responsibility, and far more about who you are when you are done.
3.  It's important to have a vision of what you'd like to do and communicate that well.  If people aren't following it, it's usually because of how well (or rather, how poorly) you communicated that vision, not that they don't want to follow.
4.  It's important to get to know people.  What you see and what you've heard usually aren't the real deal.
5.  No success can compensate for failure in the home.
6.  Prayer makes a difference.
7.  The atonement is real, and helps us be far more than we normally are.

Maybe someday I'll write about each of these so you can learn too.

We are the Staff

This is a song we've sang as a staff every year I've been to Wood Badge. I was going to share it with the staff I get to work with this year and went searching online to see if I had all the words right, but came up with nothing! I have no idea where the song came from, who wrote it, or where it started. But I thought I would get it online in case anyone else happened to go looking for it.

WE ARE THE STAFF

We are the staff of Gilwell Troop 1.
We do the work while you have the fun.
We answer questions by the score,
You stay up late to think up more.
We get up early, work hard all day.
You stay up late then come out to play.
What a gravy train you have,
At the expense of, at the expense of,
At the expense of staff!

I have no "this is to the tune of..." tips, so if you'd like to learn it as I learned it, get me your e-mail address and we'll work something out.

And for fun, a few Wood Badge staff pictures.

What can I say, they love me!

Launching water balloons

You can find me since I've got a blue cow blanket keeping the baby (then Erin) warm.

Always follow your Scoutmaster's example (staff jackets are inside out, hats on backwards).

I have no idea who this is...

...or this.

Maybe the flipped version of the "We are the Staff" song (sung towards the end of the week) is appropriate:

We are the staff of Gilwell Troop 1.

You do the work while we have the fun!

You answer questions by the score,

We stay up late to think up more.

You get up early, work hard all day.

We stay up late then come out to play.

What a gravy train we have

At the expense of, at the expense of,

At the expense of YOU!

I LOVE SCOUTING! With this being the 100 year anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America, I definitely need to write more about this. I believe it is an inspired program, designed to guide boys to becoming great men. Thankfully, I get to serve on another Wood Badge staff again this summer, where we train the scout leaders in leadership skills they can then take back to the boys.

Back to Gilwell!!!