Coming this summer: Kelsey’s Treehouse!
With funds donated in her memory, Sonlight is constructing a treehouse in memory of Kelsey McLean. Last fall Emrys and Winston completed installing beams for the foundation structure. The Covenant Presbyterian work group from Wichita, Kansas will complete the decking and rails in May. Located in the forest behind the climbing wall, the treehouse is about 15′ off the ground on the high side, and will hold everybody in camp. Intended as program space, the treehouse will be a great place for big groups and small groups to talk, pray, dance, sing and be quiet in the beauty of the mountains.
“DO YOU”
Kelsey was an encourager of “doing you.” It was one of her most common pieces of advice. “Kelsey, what should I wear to dinner tonight?” “Do you,” she’d reply. “Kelsey, should I go running today or go to yoga? “Do you,” she’d say. “Kels, this winter, should I go to Turkey and travel or go galavant around South America?” “Just do you, girl.”
What she meant by this phrase—“Do you”—I think is this: Kelsey loved each and every individual for exactly who they were. She believed in a thing called unconditional love, where you don’t pass judgement, you simply love people for exactly who they are at every point in their life. And this is what she loved about her humans—her real, raw people who were not ashamed of their silly little quirks, of the funny ways they functioned, of the uniquely individual ways in which they brightened Kelsey’s world. Kelsey’s phrase “Do You” is merely a shortened expression of: “I love you exactly how you are, and that is how you should carry yourself in the world. You should do things exactly how you would like to because you make this world a more beautiful place and I wouldn’t want you in my life any other way.”
Written by Katie McLean
Play outside
