It's been a while

It's been awhile since I wrote on this blog and as hunting season rapidly draws to an end I begin my annual reflection period and recap all of the great memories I made and experiences I had afield. There is noting I enjoy more than spending time afield. In the woods chasing whitetails, watching squirrels cutting and burying nuts for their long winter. Listening to the greatest sound in nature as a flock of Canada's fly overhead headed for who knows where. Watching a campfire leap into the air and hearing the cracking of the wood as it is consumed for my warmth and comfort. I often spend the late winter recounting these times, these times when friends gather. When a father walks with his sons down long abandoned logging roads in the dark looking for a favorite stand. When friends gather beneath a tarp to stay dry on yet another rainy weekend.

The startling sound of a companion's gun shot in the distance and the instant questions of "did he get one or miss again?" Waiting for the cell phone to vibrate with the report. Looking in a daze over the same woods I have scanned for hours only to be surprised by the sudden appearance of a doe feeding through a lane. "Where did she come from?" I ask myself as I drink in the moment like a desert traveler at a water stop. Caught up in the moment, she is gone as fast as she appeared and another notch is carved in the memory of my time in this great creation.

Some of the memories that stand out over this past year:

• Holding the hand of my youngest son as I walked him to a distant deer stand in the dark, feeling his excitement of the hunt and fear of the dark through his tiny fingers.
• Watching my oldest son on this same morning struggling with dragging his doe and exclaiming: "I want to do this one alone." Growing up before my tear filled eyes as he tries so hard to become a man.
• The excitement at finding signs of feral hogs on the land, an animal I love to hunt - only to be evaded by them time and again.
  
• Hauling stands to new locations,
  
• Deciding not to shoot the biggest 6 point I have ever seen
• Listening to the coyotes bark and howl at another moon or some other distant interest

All of these memories are only a sample of the joy I find in the great outdoors, it is moments like these, these (as one author puts it) "eternal instants" that last only moments in time, but linger in our memories for decades.

I hope I always remember that morning with both sons in one deer stand, I hope I always remember that 6 point in my cross hairs, and my finger never loosing the safety. I hope I always remember the rainy nights, and cold mornings spent with family and friends.

Now I begin my preparation for the season of 2009, it will be different this year. The land I have hunted for the past 6 years is no longer available for me. The memories I hoped to make with my sons there is not available, but, there will be new places to explore, new places to see, and new memories to make. It will be a good year and I am excited to see what it brings.

And for the season of 2008, I can say without hesitation, it was certainly a collection of many other "Times Well Spent."