Looking forward with joyful anticipation
Greetings from the North Country.
As I write this installment from our lakeside cabin in Wisconsin, I have a stream of things running through my head that we have talked about on the drive North to grouse country. Big brother, Glenn, and I made our annual pilgrimage to Price County, Wisc., where we chase grouse and woodcock around the countryside but do little to damage the population numbers. Our conversations cover a lot of ground over the 872-mile journey but the one conclusion that we arrived at along the way is that we have so much to be thankful for and to look forward to.
My old history-teaching buddy, Gary White, was fond of saying, “The problem with school teachers is that they wish away three quarters of their lives.” He meant that teachers appreciate the summer months so much that we get lost in the everyday of the nine months spent in the classroom. This resonates with me years after Gary’s retirement. I have always vowed to not let this happen to this school teacher. Suffice to say that Glenn and I agree, looking forward to all the fun stuff that we have coming up throughout the year might not be the best part of the year, but it certainly is an important part.
There is always something on the horizon that is to be anticipated with joy. Looking forward to being with family and friends, an upcoming hunting trip, a sportsman’s show, deer season, pheasant season, baseball season, family vacation, father-daughter trips, even projects around the house are met with anticipation. Dealing with the here and now gets us through the days. We know we have to deal with daily responsibilities and they keep us grounded. The fun stuff looming on the horizon is what keeps us moving forward.
It wasn’t all that many years ago that I wasn’t sure that I’d have a brother around to hunt with. For those of you not familiar with our family history, back in the mid-1990s Glenn was run down by a drunk driver in the line of duty. He was crushed between a Jersey barrier and a vehicle while supervising a D.U.I. checkpoint. The driver was unlicensed, the vehicle not registered. Needless to say, the perpetrator had no insurance. Glenn’s injuries were severe and extensive. His prognosis was not good. Leg broken in a hundred places and being thrown up over the hood, impacting the windshield with his head and then being tossed over the car plus being life-flighted from the scene left us wondering if Glenn would survive, much less walk again. Grouse and pheasant hunting was not even thought to be a possibility. Certainly, no one expected Glenn to return to work as a police officer.
Yet here we sit, aching and sore after a day in the woods. And what an awesome feeling. It is said that pain reminds you that you’re still alive. In that case, we are both intimately aware of our existence on this planet.
We don’t shoot like we once did (truth be told, we didn’t shoot that well in the first place). We can no longer walk the many miles as we did as young men. But no one is more grateful for the time they have been given nor do they look more forward to the times to come than the Bates brothers. We look forward to wringing all the enjoyment possible from the good times to come. We look forward to the next whatever that lies ahead.
I would encourage each and every one of you to start looking forward to your next adventure. Then make them happen.