My name is Katie Carboni, some of you may know me as Nurse Katie. I am quite new to the Hanover Family, as I joined this wonderful community in summer 2019. I am extremely blessed to be part of the Isaiah 40 intentional community this summer. It wasn’t the summer I hoped for without the laughter of children, the gaga tournaments, or singing around a campfire, but it was the time I needed for spiritual renewal.
These past six months of my life I have been discerning with the notion of ‘what if there was more for me’? Nursing is my life but I feel God tugging me into a new and different horizon. I have been so active in my church since I was a child, and feel most safe and joyful when I’m learning about God’s love and teachings, and serving my community in any way possible. Every time I branch out to try something new and different in my professional life, I keep coming back around to wanting to be closer to a religious community i.e. church or camp.
This time of rest for the world has given me time to discern my own happiness and life wants. Camp ministry has been a huge part of shaping who I am. I love the outdoors! I find God in everything nature; the chirping of the birds, the intricate tapestry of a spiders web, the dancing flame of a camp fire, even the wind that we feel against our skin. I feel God is calling me to the path of seminary. I get so excited with the notion! I want to learn more, do more, meet new people, and explore God’s beautiful world!
This time of service, growth and renewal at Camp Hanover has given me the chance to continue my own spiritual and discernment process in the nurturing environment of God’s creation. We are doing so much more than planting grass seed, or painting the Winger bathhouse; we are refurbishing God’s home for the future. My hard work is going to affect generations after me.
With the world on stand still, I pray that you reading, find time to remember what in life makes you happy? What fuels that joyous feeling? Have you had anything on your mind for sometime but don’t know where to go with it? Use this time to think about your life and how you want to make it count. Because we only have one so we have to make it great.
I leave you with a few words to ponder about your life from the outstanding poet Mary Oliver…
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
—Mary Oliver