A Pattern of Change
Sometimes we can look back over our lives
and see patterns emerging in ourselves, our lives, our family, and our
world. Sometimes we have control over the patterns and sometimes they are
simply the result of who we are and the world in which we live. Sometimes
they are just the natural order of the universe around us.
Take the rainbow for instance. Back before
Easter I was working with a group of people from Epworth United Methodist
Church to create a giant rainbow banner woven from multi-colored ribbons.
Someone in the group asked me how I had designed the sequence of the
colors and I had to explain that I had no choice. Yes, I selected the
individual colors but when it came to putting them in a proper order,
there was no choice. All I needed was a starting point and a direction.
Order is inherent in a spectrum.
2008 is the 18th season for CAMP Rehoboth.
Over the years I’ve referred many times to the fact that Rehoboth Beach
was originally developed as a Methodist Church campground and that
knowledge of that fact actually played a role in the creation of the name
for the CAMP Rehoboth we know today. The funny thing for me is that back
in the 1940s my grandfather was one of the founders of a Methodist Church
campground in Georgia. Our “camps” may be a little different in
purpose, but there it is perhaps—an emerging pattern?
As I sit writing this column at my desk in
the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center I’m surrounded by the exciting and
comforting noise of men and machinery working to build the new wing of the
CAMP Rehoboth Community Center and I can’t help but think back to the
founding o f CAMP Rehoboth 18 years ago. Some days I feel like we started
CAMP Rehoboth yesterday; on other days, like it was a lifetime ago.
No matter the time passed, however, I can
clearly see that the pattern for what is happening in and around CAMP
Rehoboth today was all contained in its original concept. Much like an egg
that contains the DNA of the creature that will be born from it, the
original vision for CAMP Rehoboth has served as a blueprint for the growth
and development of the organization—even when we were too immersed in
its day-to-day workings to notice. From my perspective, CAMP Rehoboth is
becoming what it was always meant to be.
Human beings like patterns. We surround
ourselves with them. Patterns exist in our daily routines—in our eating
and sleeping habits. Patterns exist in nature and in the structures of our
lives: in tiles, in bricks, in siding, on our carpets, and in the flooring
we place in our homes and workplaces. Patterns can be seen on the
materials we wear on our bodies and use to decorate our windows and walls.
Patterns add interest and order to our lives, but they can also become
prisons for us—locking us into old habits and the tired repetition and
eternal human cry of “that’s the way we’ve always done it.“
Changing the patterns in one’s life is
both exhilarating and frightening. On the one hand we want change, on the
other we fear it. One of the reasons that Barack Obama has done so well in
his election campaign is because he inspires us to change the world around
us—to break the patterns that the cynics among us would have us believe
can never be broken.
When CAMP Rehoboth was first started back
in 1990, it was about making change in our community. Over the years it
has become a part of the pattern of life in Rehoboth Beach. That’s good
certainly, but the price of success, if we are not careful, can also be a
loss of creativity and a crippling fear of failure that results in never
taking a chance on anything new.
Everywhere I go these days I try to watch
for the young leaders around us. As CAMP Rehoboth moves forward into the
next stage of its development, we need to embrace change and we need to
seek out the youthful energy we need to move the organization into a
bright and hopeful future.
As the new building rises, so do my
spirits. Sure we’re still raising money to pay for it, but I have seen
what this community can do when challenged. I believe we are building a
great place for the future of Rehoboth Beach. I know we’ve depended on
our generous and wonderful community to get us to this point. That’s one
pattern I don’t want to see change.
* Photos: 1.) Epworth's rainbow
ribbon banner, 2.)Steel rising on the new wing of the Community Center.
Murray Archibald, Founder and President
of the Board of Directors of CAMP Rehoboth, is an artist in Rehoboth
Beach.
Thank you to all the CAMP Rehoboth
Community Center Volunteers for the period of March 7 - April 3.
Tony Burns
Paul Fessler
Charlie Lee
Michael Muller
Steve Proctor
Barb Ralph
Mark Robinson
Chris Sampson
Women’s Weekend
Kathleen McCormick
Katie Rogers
Ruth Lamothe
Anne Pikolas
Barb Ralph
Peg Green
Cindy Johnson
Barb Thompson
Rainbow Thumb Club
Matt Carey
Ward Ellinger
Rob Freeman
Tony Ghigi
Steve Hoult
Bud Palmer
Ken Reilly
Tom White
Murray Archibald, Founder and
President of the Board of Directors of CAMP Rehoboth, is an artist in
Rehoboth Beach.
|
Back to Top of Page 