A Sunday afternoon off from elk hunting.
After two mornings of seeing elk, I am feeling good about the chances of successfully filling the freezer this week. Since I have a deer license also, and have been watching several large bucks all summer, I decide to go to a different area, just a few minutes by car from my home and see if they are still around. More wonderful neighbors have given me permission to hunt deer on their 160 acres, even when they are not home. Continue reading
“Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”
Spiritual awakening? What’s that? You know when you have had one, whether sudden, like a lightening bolt (hit’s forehead and says, ” I coulda’ had a V-8″, thinking, “why did this take me so long?”) or a gradual and subtle infusion of a sense of…connectedness. I am reminded of the cute little saying, “Life is what happens while you are making plans.” Similarly, a spiritual awakening is what happens while you are working the steps. We focus on working hard at the step in front of us, working them in order, struggling to “get a God”, making ourselves write out an inventory and look at resentments, gritting our teeth and looking at our part in these old and new struggles. Then we move on, with the help of a sponsor, someone who has worked the steps and had a serious and positive change in his or her life. We look more at ourselves, at traits we want to remove; we ask for God’s help in hitting “delete” on some of the stuff in our personality and behavior we find objectionable. Continue reading
“We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry it out.”
We come into recovery with one of three positions on God.
Happy Ending to the morning
I am a real hunter! I am within 75 yards of three elk and they don’t know I am here! I can picture the freezer full of unadulterated meat, no antibiotics, no hormones, high omega-3 content, high protein, low fat and yummy! We make our own sausage, too and can have it as lean and spicy as we want and avoid the preservatives I am deathly allergic to. Continue reading
Real Hunting
Last week I told you about my style of hunting, minimalist and solitary. Today I will recount the first hours of the first day of my elk and deer season, October, 2012.
Quietly and on high alert, I cross the meadow west of my house. Erik is going northeast, planning to climb a hill and drop down to the pond about a forty-minute walk away. If we do not see animals, we will probably meet up on the trail home within a few hours. Continue reading