The Most Intense Year and Half of my Life, Part 1

Part One: Words, Wings and Our Wonderful Story

In order to really bring justice to this last year and a half, this period with the greatest density of life changing events in my adult life, I need to go back to when I had just turned 24. Camp had started.  I was helping out as a leader in the teen development program at a local children's bible camp, a wonderful job, in my opinion, probably one of the best in the world.  I had just finished up my second last year of English, well on my newly motivated way towards finishing my degree. 

I love camp.  It was chock full of unique people, all working towards the same objective - making kids and teens feel like they belong in a new and strange setting, and having as much fun as you can have whilst doing that. 

And then there were the really interesting staff, the really cute ones.  And there was one in particular. 

Up to and including this point in my life, I had agonized about my singleness, a course of celibacy enforced upon myself for nearly five years.  I had bought into the idea that to be A Good Christian Man, I must excise all thoughts of lust - which included attraction towards the opposite gender.  While I think I had a very good heart back then, I think some of the principles that I had followed at that point were somewhat flawed.  Now isn't the time to get into the topic of Being a Male In the Church Today, but I hope to later. 

Yeah.  There was this girl.  She was beautiful, captivating, and totally unreachable, due to the strictures of camp.  Not merely that, I knew in my heart of hearts, that she wasn't the one for me.  One of the strange by-products of the Long Night of the Owl's Solitude, was the constant communication God and I had regarding relationships.  It came in two flavors.  The first would be my initial attraction, followed by prayer, and then usually a very strong sense of not for you, Phil.  The second being my common sense kicking me straight up the head.  This was both.  But the attraction lingered throughout the summer camp season, and I had some heavy lifting to do in terms of prayer and getting my head screwed on straight. 

Camp ended.  One of my fellow leaders with whom I co-lead the program with, and with whom I had also confided my attraction, dropped a bomb.  This wasn't like a flashbang, or a concussion grenade.  We're talking shrapnel here.  He was dating the Girl.  It felt like I was in some strange Shakespearian love triangle. 

During this season, I had been writing to my aunt.  Strange, at first glance, but we'd struck up as quite companionable pen pals, as we were both interested in writing, and we'd always got along.  She was also in BC, six hours away from where I was living and far enough away to be an objective third party.   I told her my story.

She replied with not a well-written email, which was common, but rather, with an introduction to Violet, over facebook. 

Little did I know what significance this would have on my life.   But I remember feeling like I was caught up in a strange and wonderful story, the one of my life.  And it was moving in a very interesting direction. 

The Owl