{"id":3272,"date":"2017-05-15T06:26:03","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T12:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturespath\/?p=3272"},"modified":"2017-05-15T06:26:03","modified_gmt":"2017-05-15T12:26:03","slug":"camp-fire-girl-earth-relating-uu-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/naturessacredjourney\/2017\/05\/camp-fire-girl-earth-relating-uu-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"From Camp Fire Girl to Earth-Relating UU Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Greenwood<\/a>
Greenwood Fire Circle at Camp Kilowan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

My earth-relating\/gods-relating spirituality is rooted in my experience as a \u201cCamp Fire Girl.\u201d From grade 2 through high school I met weekly with a group of girls obsessed with the outdoors. We learned from the Camp Fire lore and our experiences together as \u201cEarth Maidens in a Circle.\u201d We sang together, we canoed and hiked together, we learned together and we fell in love with the Camp Fire camp in the Oregon rain forest.<\/p>\n

Sacred Fire Circles and Sacred\u00a0Singing!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"WoHeLo<\/a>
WoHeLo badge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our watch-word was \u201cWo-He-Lo\u201d \u2013 which stands for work-health-love. Our law was a sung pledge \u201cSeek beauty, give service, and knowledge pursue. Be trustworthy ever in all that you do. Hold fast onto truth and your work glorify. You will be happy in the law of Camp Fire.\u201d You can hear the Camp Fire Law here.<\/a><\/p>\n

At our annual grand council fire we processed in with song, processed out with song, and sang many times during the ceremony. As a high school senior, at my final grand council fire, I was proud to receive the WoHeLo medallion: an award for completing a year of work, equivalent to the Eagle Scout rank.\u00a0Listen, for instance,\u00a0to the grand council fire processional (which mentions \u201cGreat Wokanda.)\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Camp Fire\u2019s link with Native American lore<\/strong><\/p>\n

Much of Camp Fire\u2019s lore was written by a Sioux man (Ohiyesa\/Dr. Charles Eastman)<\/a> for his friends Luther and Charlotte Gulick, philanthropists involved with the YMCA and other authors, artists, and visionaries. (For more context on the history see Alice Beard\u2019s page<\/a>) \u00a0They were interested in creating a character-building club for girls in America, based on relationship with the natural world, to complement the emerging group for boys: Boy Scouts. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Camp<\/a>
Camp Fire logo circa 1975<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I don\u2019t know what inspired Ohiyesa to share parts of his language, culture and spiritual practices with the girl children of the well-to-do. I do know I am grateful for the gift, even as my adult self recognizes the colonizing, marginalization, oppression and cultural appropriation interwoven in that process. I have received so many gifts from that heritage that I am still learning how to give back and be properly thankful. Here is one person\u2019s take on the complexity of Native American girls who had lost their heritage in boarding schools, learning fragments from participation in Camp Fire Girls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From Camp Fire Roots to Earth-Relating Branches<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through Camp Fire, years before I encountered Greek Gods, I learned that there are other ways to experience God. I also learned that worship, ritual, and spiritual practice could look different from what I was taught at my childhood church. Circling around a campfire, processions with pageantry and song, communing with nature, collaboratively created rites and storytelling are still a part of my spiritual practice. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Camp<\/a>
Camp Fire beads
photo: Kathy Groner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through Camp Fire\u2019s reward system (earn a bead for each new skill, experience, or lesson accomplished) I was motivated to learn about ecological diversity, the civic process, orienteering, solar cooking, conservation and I gained a lifelong thirst for learning. <\/span><\/p>\n

Through My Camp Fire group I learned that I could be friends with people who were not like me \u2013 who I might not ever talk to at school \u2013 and that the relationships we formed from showing up together each week allowed us to have each other\u2019s backs in the rest of our lives. I recognized this lesson when I heard the Unitarian Universalist phrase \u201cwe need not think alike to love alike\u201d\"need<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Unitarian Universalist Blossoms<\/strong><\/p>\n

For me, I think that my early training in ritual, spiritual connection, learning, and community still are my preferred default styles. Now I don\u2019t dress up in pseudo-Native American costume, nor do I call on \u201cgreat Wokanda.\u201d I grew up and learned some things about cultural appropriation, building your own spirituality, cultural roots, and respectful learning, and I\u2019m still learning. I do continue to find campfires and singing sacred. I go to the rainforest and coast, and my own backyard garden to renew. I seek community with people who are different from me. For me, these are some of the earth-relating\/gods-relating branches that bloom as my UU Ministry.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My earth-relating\/gods-relating spirituality is rooted in my experience as a \u201cCamp Fire Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2223,"featured_media":3274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[857,860,56,5],"class_list":["post-3272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-campfire","tag-camping","tag-earth-centered","tag-unitarian-universalism"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Camp Fire Girl to Earth-Relating UU Minister<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My earth-relating\/gods-relating spirituality is rooted in my experience as a \u201cCamp Fire Girl.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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