Last week was a rough one for me.

It started with a minor car accident on my way to the ACA Texoma camp conference. I was fine, my car got banged up, the other driver’s insurance accepted fault.

Frustrating, but stuff happens.

Then we had the freeze.

I tried to prepare by getting my heating system checked the week before.

But ice built up on the outside compressor and the heat failed. No problem, I had a space heater and a sleeping bag. I can handle this.

I went out to camp on Monday, and returned to Austin on Wednesday to deal with the car.

When I got home, I heard the water splashing onto the floor before I even saw it.

A tough week had somehow become even worse.

This little indoor water park had been running for about a day.

I stood there staring at a completely ruined living room.

First thought → I should be very, very, very upset right now.

Second thought → I know I can figure this out.

Start by turning off the main water. Then call a plumber. Stop the immediate damage. Call the insurance company. See what the options are.

After that flurry of activity, I paused for a moment and returned to that first thought. I should definitely be freaking out about this.

The waterfall had been deescalated into a pond, but where should I even begin for cleanup?

Should I make a list of supplies?
Call some friends to ask for help?
Call my mom (because that’s what you do when disaster strikes)?

And then, I kid you not, I thought about Torchlight.

Every Night at Torchlight

About 80 times last summer, at the end of Torchlight, we said the same thing to the entire camp.

“We can!!!”

And then hundreds of voices yell back:

“…do hard things!!!”

Every single night. All summer long.

We started this during staff training last year. Counselors bought in immediately. By the third day of camp, the youngest campers were yelling it too.

Right after that call and response, we talk about a durable skill. One each night. Things like collaboration, flexibility, responsibility, courage, optimism, self-control.

These are the skills campers get to take home with them. The skills they’ll lean on when life gets complicated.

At camp, kids practice these every day without realizing they’re practicing:

Trying the climbing wall again after falling.
Adjusting when the schedule changes.
Figuring out cabin dynamics.

And saying these words each evening throughout a camp session has a way of becoming ingrained.

When something goes wrong, the first thought isn’t “This is too much, I can’t handle this.” It’s “We can do hard things. Now, what’s the first step?”

I’m now thinking this habit is one of the best things we do.

A Different Relationship With Life

I want to be a little careful here. My hard week wasn’t an actual disaster. People deal with much harder things than burst pipes and ruined furniture. Insurance is handling most of it.

But it’s worth thinking about how we react when things go sideways.

Life has an endless, unpredictable list of stuff that lands at random times. Fender benders. Broken heaters. Flooded houses. Some big, some small, all inconvenient.

We can respond to that list by thinking: life is just beating the heck out of me right now. This stuff always happens to me.

Or we can respond with: okay, this is a lot, but I can do it.

A person moves through life differently when they have a built-in belief that they can handle whatever happens. The list doesn’t get shorter. The problems don’t disappear. But the relationship with all of it changes.

That’s what we’re practicing at camp. Not just for the summer. For later. For the stuff that hasn’t happened yet.

As I write this, my living room is still gutted. Inches of standing water have been cleaned up. Fans have been running. The ceiling is gone. Floor ruined.

But it’s okay. Because I know it’s going to get handled. One step at a time.

We can do hard things.

Happy Friday,

Erec Sir

PS - Everything’s getting fixed: