{"id":2214,"date":"2017-02-09T05:55:53","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T12:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/?p=2214"},"modified":"2017-02-09T05:55:53","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T12:55:53","slug":"camp-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=2214","title":{"rendered":"Camp Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I met my first friends in the summer of 1966 at Hidden Falls Ranch (a Christian youth camp on the Palo Duro). Sure, I had friends growing up in Canyon, but real friends\u2014I believe one needs to be a friend to have one, and before that summer I didn\u2019t know how.<\/p>\n

To be a friend, that is. The kids at Hidden Falls taught me\u2014taking me in when there were so many reasons not to, loving me unconditionally, believing in me. Heck, I didn\u2019t even believe in myself.<\/p>\n

That was 50 years ago, and I still keep in touch with Meg (Austin), Gary (Australia), Kinne (Oregon), Lee (Washington State), and Ann (Amarillo). There are more: You know who you are even if my aging mind can\u2019t name you right now. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

I made new friends every year I worked at HFR, including from \u201976 to \u201980 when I became the director. Then, the folks were younger than I\u2014I was their boss\u2014but we were friends, too, and I still keep up with them, mostly on Facebook.<\/p>\n

C.S. Lewis said that friends (unlike lovers) stand side by side, not face to face. We do so because we share a common interest (the thing we\u2019re looking at together). At HFR that was our God, our campers and our majestic canyon. <\/p>\n

I suppose that\u2019s the way it\u2019ll be in retirement, too. If you want more friends just notice where your gaze rests (your passion); then see who\u2019s standing next to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I met my first friends in the summer of 1966 at Hidden Falls Ranch (a Christian youth camp on the Palo Duro). Sure, I had friends growing up in Canyon, but real friends\u2014I believe one needs to be a friend to have one, and before that summer I didn\u2019t know how. To be a friend, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2215,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214\/revisions\/2215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}