Woodland Trails: You just have to make the time

Talk about it

How do you find the time? My son, Josh, told me that you don’t find the time. You have to make the time! At 28 years of age I have to give him credit for that bit of wisdom.

Being a father. A person with a job. A dog owner. With wood to chop. Snow to shovel. Food to cook. Dishes to do. House to clean. Time on the road. Cat to feed. Kennels to clean. Church on Sunday. Divorce Care Ministry each Monday. Groceries to shop for. Columns to write. Christmas tree to put up and take down. Late shopping to do. Christmas dinner to cook. I could keep going on but I think you get the picture.

How do you find the time? Archery deer season. Gun deer season. Duck season. Goose season. Dove season. Rabbit season. Grouse season. Early goose season. Only 24 hours in a day. Only 60 minutes in an hour. Work five or six days a week. Only one or two days off a week.

Only one way to go at it. You have to make the time.

I was watching KHO the other night. Kent Hrbek Outdoors was about a young boy with leukemia who was granted a gift. He got to go to Colorado and hunt elk. It was amazing watching the young man hunt and hike and hurt while seeking to take an elk. Even a well person has problems with the work of a hunt. This kid said it best when he said something like this. “You don’t notice the pain when your heart is pounding!”

So what makes your heart pound?

I know so many people who don’t have any excitement in their lives. Nothing makes their hearts pound. I know some people who get stuck in ruts. You know them too. They get so tied up with work that their lives are lost before they know it. Then they realize too late that they have missed out of some of the best days of their lives. Some pass away a few days or week after they retire. Their hearts never pounded.

Some people go to the extreme to get their hearts pounding. Jumping out of airplanes. Taking on rides at places like Valleyfair where they spend a few bucks for a few minutes of excitement. Drugs can get a heart pounding. And they can kill you as well. Fast cars. Breaking laws or living life through others with games and television.

My heart races every time I step out on the wild trails. The excitement of a deer hunt with my son or a duck hunt with my daughter. The excitement and anticipation of calling in geese or when a wild rooster pheasant bursts from the bulrushes make my heart pound. These venues are time-honored traditions. It’s a part of our heritage, as much a part of life in the history of the expansion, exploration and excitement of this land that was part of our nation back a hundred years ago or more! Too much of it is lost today along paved roads, under street lights and mowed, chemically treated lawns.

Back in the day it was just part of daily life. It was how they survived. But survival back then brought man closer to nature. Take Lewis and Clark on their exploration of the west. They thought they were pretty much at the top of the food chain until they ran up against giant, plains grizzly bears. After a few deathly scary battles against the giant and fearless bruins, the men of the Lewis and Clark camp went out of their way to avoid the great bears. Their hearts were pounding big time!

Today we are safe in our little boxes set among other little boxes on city blocks all in a row. We sit in little boxed rooms watching little boxes with moving pictures of other people doing what we wished we could do – race across the country, survive on a island, dance with the stars. But hearts seldom race when we get stuck in those ruts, living out lives in little boxes. Then we wake up on the couch, we crawl into bed and try it once again the next day. That’s when we get up and get in our little driving box and drive to another box where we spend all day working in another box.

Or we can try to live the lives we watch on TV and make our hearts pound. Head for the lake to catch some fish. Jump in the truck and drive to Ely for some winter camping. Grab the gun and dog and head for the woods. Put on the cross country skis and start to get ready to ski the Birkie. Grab the snowboard and drive to the slopes. Jump in the canoe and run the rapids. You can get out of your box and get your heart pounding this year! It’s 2009!

Life is too short not to live with some adventures in life. Life is too short not to try to make your heart pound. But how do you find the time? You just have to make the time!

Tags: outdoors, wisconsin, bennett