The Vigil: Part 1

This past weekend has been written in the stars, unbeknownst to me, for almost a decade. The stars finally aligned after a series of fateful encounters last year, 2017.

And this weekend – the stars shined in the night sky as bright as could be. As if they knew, this moment, this life altering event, was going to happen.

Before I was pregnant with Thing 1, or maybe I was pregnant with her – 9 years ago, I saw on a segment of Good Day Oregon about a REALLY cool inclusive scouting group that allowed both boys AND girls to participate together. It was a really small, home grown organization. And it was only located in Portland. But I knew from that segment, that IF we were to have kids, we would only put them in that scouting group.

We were never personally fans of BSA or GSA, even though the husband was a Boy Scout for many, many years and has lots of GREAT memories. But those organizations just did not fit our values.

Time went by. 2 kids arrived. I completely forgot about scouts or even wanting to join the scouts.

And then, Thing 2 and I were T-Boned. And I had to go to physical therapy for 3ish months because my hand/wrist just would NOT get better. No matter what we tried – it hurt. There was nothing wrong with it. Wasn’t broken, fractured, sprained, and it didn’t have nerve damage. But it hurt. So BAD!

And it was thru that connection I had made with my hand therapist, and it was at the VERY last session, via a very sidetracked tangent – he told me how his daughter was in a scouting program. And we got to talking. And it was the SAME SCOUT GROUP!!!!!!

This was in April/May. And I went home and I e-mailed that scout group. And they responded!!!! But they were pretty much done for the school year. NOOOOOOO!!!!! I was just so excited.

The summer went by too slow. Way. Too. Slow. And then finally. The open house for BPSA. And we went. I asked all the questions. I soaked up all the information. I knew we needed to get the kids in NO MATTER WHAT.

And then one of the scout leaders said there was a waitlist. A very LONG waitlist.

And my heart sank.

But then – another scout leader said that if we wanted to sign up to be an assistant leader or helper, then their child would be able to by-pass any waitlist and start immediately.

I am pretty sure I heard the husband say, under his breath, “Why did you have to say that?” And then he probably shot darts out of his eyes at the back of my head. Because he already knew what was in my brain.

You betcha! I signed up myself AND the SuperHusband to become Rover assistant leaders. That was September 2017.

Mid Sept – our first camp out with the group. We had no idea who anyone was. But it took maybe 20 minutes to realize that we were at the right place. This is where we belonged. Everyone…..EVERYONE…was so kind, helpful, caring, genuine, friendly. I knew I made the right decision to volunteer for tribune that first night.

End of Sept, we went to Brownsea Training Camp (BTC). And I gulped down ALL the Kool-Aid without a swallowing.

Marchish – And I volunteered to be the Akela (the scout leader for the 8-11 yr old Timberwolves). I was scared. Insanely scared. That is just way too much responsibility. Especially because I did not know a single morsel of information with relations to scouting. Or anything really outdoorsy besides camping in a tent trailer/travel trailer and having the SuperHusband squirt a gallon of fire starter to get a fire started.

April 18th – My life changed. Forever. I vowed to NOT let fear hold me back, or negativity push me down. I vowed to make the most of every. single. moment. I vowed to spread my happiness, because we all need a little love.

Sometime in the next couple weeks – I made a vow that I was going to make an amazing Akela. That I can and WILL do this. I am going to embrace being an example of what a Scout is, so that I can watch the children of our future, experience the world around them. So that I can help lead them along the path to being able to peacefully live with our nature, our community, our fellow humans.

This weekend, has been subconsciously planned for almost a decade. Every life choice that we have been making up until this moment – has brought us ever closer – to this moment.

Just when I think I could not know any more certainly that this is where we belong, another experience reminds my soul that this is our Tribe. From the Pride Parade. To the open-hearted fellow scouts. To the amazing kids. To the spirit of scouting. This is what it feels like to be part of something.

To find your tribe.

But this weekend, wiped out any remaining minuscule morsels of doubt. The experiences we felt and memories we made – we locked away in our eternal memory bank.

This weekend, every moment of this weekend, had been consciously planned (or not planned – see Part 2). I decided this weekend, was the right time, to complete my vigil.

And what my vigil guided me to – truly shocked me.