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WEB
SITE: RING LAKE RANCH One of the most vivid memories of my childhood was my first visit to Ring Lake Ranch. As we pulled in and stopped to open the gate, I remember standing on the bridge. I was awestruck by the clear rushing water beneath the bridge and the distant view of Trail Lake. I remember closing my eyes and taking in the smell of sage and evergreen. It was like nothing I had ever seen or smelled in all of my years. Of course, I was only six. To this day, the Ranch remains one of the most special places on earth for me. Each time I visit (not often enough) I am still overwhelmed by the beautiful gift God has set aside for all of us who know its secret. My experiences as guest and junior staff member helped to shape my life and make me the person I am today. In return for the feelings and memories the Ranch has given me, I feel I owe a huge debt. I am very lucky to have walked on its sacred soil, breathed its sweet breath, heard its peaceful song, and basked in its glorious beauty. For these reasons I welcome any opportunity to help the Ranch. This opportunity arose in November, 1998. By trade, I am a teacher. Ninth grade Earth Science and Biology are my subject areas and I enjoy the "giving" that teaching allows. I also have a knack for computers, and have shaped that into a Masters Degree in Instructional Technology and a successful sideline business of website design. I offered the idea of doing a web site for Ring Lake to my Aunt Joan (Guntzelman) and was asked to continue the development begun by Ann Knight and John Fontaine. It is my pleasure to offer my web design services to the Ranch. Working from its able beginnings the website has evolved and has potential as a valuable marketing tool. We average 65 visitors a week. For a small organization like Ring Lake, those numbers are impressive, especially since the site is relatively new. We hope that guests and new visitors will continue to use the web site for information about Ranch activities. The web site includes:
It is my hope that the web site project grows into a truly interactive medium through which all of us "Ranchers" can communicate. It is there to serve the entire Ranch family--old and new. Please check it out at www.ringlake.org. We welcome your input and suggestions for growth. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to serve a place I hold so dear. Mike Dermody |
"A
Journal Entry" On several trips to Ring Lake Ranch, Walter Carvin from Warren, Ohio has used the middle weekend to go off overnight into the wilderness on his own. He shares here a journal excerpt from one of those trips--a solo hike to the Dinwoody Lakes--reflecting what could be an experience we might find resonating in our own souls. "This morning I made my way through the great saddle west of Arrow and Circle mountains. You hardly seem to move in the huge landscape. Circle looms above, a red changeless presence. . . The wind rustles the waves toward me and the sun reflects from those waves and the brightness moves toward me as if to say, 'Take all this--this lake and mountain, this light that lies upon everything like a benediction--take it into your heart and cherish it. It is for you.' . . This rock on which I lean also participates in being. . . (God) wills that I take this little sparkling bit of his world into my consciousness and cherish it. . . in receiving it and the God who made it I am become one with both. . . and I, as I lean upon it, help it to be the rock it is. For it is my 'being' to know its 'being.' By my entering into this little world of lake and rock, entering with sympathy and love, taking it into me, this rock becomes yet more 'rocky' than before. We are part of an order, and each part of such an order enhances and makes possible the other part. If this rock gives me a place to sit and in these reflections be more 'Walter,' I, on the other hand allow the rock to be even more 'rocky' by resting my posterior upon it. . . I know that beneath the surface of this lake life is ferocious, that at night the stars are reflected in it from immense distance. . . The stars can become symbols, stories, signals from infinity. . . I am one who sees them and loves them, and as they are seen and understood and loved they are themselves richer, as I am for that understanding. Thus, for this little time and in this place, by this quiet lake, I and the rock and the lake are ordered by God into praise and peace."
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