Skip to main content

Of Place

My Sky Condo
A recent piece in "Trout" by Tom Reed talked about place and what it means to have that one place where you can retreat to and forget all of your worries. It got me thinking about my place. Tom writes, "it is your place. We all have them. Places of heart home, places where we feel centered and right in the world... At that moment when you were there, you were all there."

 When I was little, I would sit by the stream heading out from the pond behind our house. I could sit and just listen to the birds, the stream gurgle over the rocks and watch the clouds bounce across the blue sky. It was peaceful and calming.

When I hunt now, I can zen out pretty well. It may take me a week to get comfortable but after that, my 5-6 hour long sits are usually calming and relaxing although I am observant as I watch and wait for a deer. You have time to process everything in your mind (sometimes more than once) and sometimes you are surprised by what your subconscious wants you to work through.

 And maybe it's different if you are fishing instead of hunting. Hopefully I can get some time in soon to get back out on the waterways and catch something, but for now it is deer hunting and relaxing.   Each of my hunting spots are unique and hold different memories and last thoughts. In my Treeseat, I relive that 10 pointer walking out in front of me and giving me the opportunity to shoot my first deer without dad sitting besides me. It helped me gain confidence that I can calm myself down enough to make one good, clean shot. In the Sky Condo, I remember watching yearlings play in the field one morning and a set of triplets exploring the bushes and small trees just under us. Quietly watching nature.

I am sure that as I hunt more, start fishing and getting my son outside more, there will be new places that relax me and carry great memories. There will be new places that are the perfect spot to relax and share memories.  There will be the place where my son shoots his first deer.  Where I catch my first first (real one, without a guide) and where any future kids find their passion for the outdoors. I can't wait to find them!




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Healthy Coyote coming through

I still have a few trail cameras out to see what the deer are up to.  I have gotten pictures of the big buck that is around and most recently, I got these pictures.  Normally, I wouldn't be too freaked out but now that we have a dog, it is a little unnerving.  Add that this camera is about 50 feet from our lawn and less than 100 feet from our front door... I hope that this one is just passing through. (Sidenote: I put new batteries in this camera so the date and time are wrong BUT  I walked in front of it so it would take my picture and I could figure out what the actual time and date were: 7am Saturday morning.)
Post a Comment
Read more

Where are the women?

This week, my interview with Steve at The Maine Outdoorsman went live. Steve said yesterday 200 people hit his site viewing over 500 pages. That is a lot of people reading about little ole me and hunting. Why? When I think of women who are in the general public's eye and hunt, I can think of 2 - Country singer Miranda Lambert and Sarah Palin. Why only two? Why is the female hunter such a fascinating thing? (I should probably note that I do not have cable so any and all female hunters on the hunting stations are lost to me. I'll keep it to the general public because that's what I am familiar with.) People/media were fascinated by the fact that they could get footage of Palin and her gun, shooting (and gutting) animals but I feel like the nostalgia would be lost if they had the same footage of McCain. Lambert and her hubby Blake Shelton tweet photos of their kills, and comment on what/where they are hunting. I only know this because I follow both. That's it....
15 comments
Read more

So much to celebrate - let's give away stuff!

As you know from my last post, this month I am celebrating the one year anniversary of this blog, 10 years of hunting with my Dad and a milestone birthday. In honor of all three, I want to give away some great Maine stuff to all of you! Rules: 1. Leave a comment 2. On Oct 28 (my big bday), Dad will pick a number and the corresponding post will win. What will you win? A big basket of great Maine and outdoor things! Such as: fly fishing flies, blueberry something, Maine maple syrup, apple butter (to be made by me on Tuesday), something related to deer hunting and a couple of great books signed by local authors. (Pictures will be posted when I am back at a computer). So thank you for your support and for helping my celebrate such a great month!!
17 comments
Read more