Count Your Blessings

Sunday afternoon, Jenelle and I went for a little hike. Nothing major, just a mile or two on this trail Jenelle calls the Craggy Ridge Loop. Lots of leaves are down and already brown. There are still lots of pretty ones left but somehow I missed seeing the pretty bright red leaves of early fall. I mentioned that to Jenelle and she reminded me that I had been in Colorado for a couple weeks right in the middle of September. It's not that I forgot. I remember my trip and seeing the Aspens turn bright yellow. It's just been a busy couple of weeks since I've gotten back. Making some glass to sell. Getting equipment ready so we could blow glass at the Springs Folk Festival. Watching as many of Aiyana's volleyball games as we could squeeze in. To top it off, Blake and I had been planning a short backpacking/fishing trip to the Cranberry Wilderness in WV. Sometimes life gets busier than we like it too.  When it does, it's important that we don't let it turn into a blur. There are so many little blessings in each day and it does the heart good to remember them. 

When we got back from our Sunday hike I took my bow out in the yard and shot a few arrows. I enjoy shooting and try to spend at least a couple of minutes every day flinging arrows off of the deck or down through the woods or wherever, trying to mix things up and imagining in my mind that I'm shooting at that elusive buck back in timbuktu. It was chilly outside and so after shooting I went in and took a nap. That's what Sundays were made for. Getting rested and recharged! After that I would sit down at the computer and get my hunting license.

For those of you that hunt and know how much I love bowhunting, you're probably thinking that I'm a little late in the game. And I am. October eighth is about as late as I've ever gotten my license. Our season usually starts the first weekend in September. Along with getting my license last night, I was really looking forward to getting out with my bow this morning.

But things don't always go to plan around here and as we were going about our evening, the plan changed. Aiyana and the boys headed to the youth group gym-night. She drives an older Subaru that we keep fixing up and it's been getting her where she needs to go. It’s received more than its share of bings and dings, but it's been a great "learner" car for her. Halfway there her car stopped and she called me to the rescue. To keep the story shorter, it sounds like the timing belt tore. Since we don't have boatloads of money, instead of hunting this morning, I'll be figuring out how to get the car back to the house and figuring out if it's something that I can fix or if the engine is damaged and not worth fixing. 

Either way, I was feeling bummed out last night.

I listen to more podcasts than music these days, and one of the  best ones I've heard is from these two guys named Monty Browning and Bryan Burkhardt. These guys are on a moose hunt in Alaska. At the end of each day they share the day's events around a crackling fire. Honestly, they don't see a lot of moose. But they encounter things like ravens and squirrels and while they are sitting around the fire, they will have gray jays, better known as camp robbers or whiskey jacks, come and eat out of their hands. Every once in a while they'll see an occasional wolf or  caribou. And so that's what they talk about. Somehow these guys manage to find a month's worth of time and boatload of money to go on this annual hunting trip that most of us will only dream about. Once in a while they'll kill a moose, and on the podcast you can hear that fresh tenderloin hitting the olive oil in Monty’s cast iron skillet. You can almost taste it! Maybe someday I'll get up there, but probably not.

Since I've just recently returned from a two week elk hunt in Colorado, I'd be foolish to complain about not getting to hunt in Alaska. Even more foolish would be to complain about having to miss a hunt in my backyard this morning.

My dad is in a nursing home and most Sunday evenings they have a program. At the end, Sandy, the lady in charge of the evening, will often lead the old folks in singing "count your blessings, name them one by one." That would probably be a great song for all of us.

I've been blessed to have dabbled in a few hunts and excursions that some of you probably only dream about as well. But it's easy for me to forget about them. Last Monday, Blake and I set up our camp alongside the Cranberry River. We made a crackling fire and as it was just getting dusk, I decided to cast a couple of casts. As I did so, a deer came and stepped into the water. It crossed the river and walked up to about ten yards from where Blake was sipping hot chocolate by the fire. After checking things out, it turned and walked off. Maybe just a little thing. But looking back, a lot more than that. In my mind it was a perfect picture of peace.

When I start adding up those little things, they add up to quite a lot! But those little things are so easy to forget.

I'm going to guess that yours can really add up too.

Count your blessings!

You can listen to Monty and Bryan’s moose adventures at  Alaskan Moose Adventure - part 1,  Ep 143 on Podbean, check it out! https://www.podbean.com/ea/dir-yjjp8-1577fdca