Outdoor Truths

Gary Miller

          Another turkey season has all but ended. There’s just a few more days left. It has been a really weird season. It seems the action started earlier this year perhaps because of the warmer than normal temperatures. Even before opening day the toms were strutting, gobbling, and running to the hens. Hunters had to trade their shotguns for binoculars. After opening day the action began as normal, but then a cold spell hit. After that it was as if their mouths were frozen shut – a few gobbles on the roost and then it seemed they moved throughout the day in silence. Just yesterday I watched a long-beard remain totally unaffected by my calling, even though he was without hens. I know, I know, that may say something about my ability to call, but it’s not like they ran off. They just remained uninterested. It’s funny that when you think you have gotten this hunting thing down, nature throws you a curve ball and reminds you how little you really know and how much what you do is determined by things you have no control over. That’s a mouthful of truth! And it goes for more important things than hunting as well.

            Have you ever noticed that when we begin having success in a few things, how we start to assume that we have found some kind of infallible key? We automatically think we have discovered what others have not. We even determine that it is our superior intellect that has brought us to this advanced place where others have never tread. I particularly remember this scenario a few years ago when the stock market was at its best. Thousands of individuals mistakenly thought they had somehow learned how to “beat the system.” They mistakenly assumed that their success was based more on their own ability than simply on the fact that the winds of success were blowing freely on everyone. And it had more to do with the present environment than a perceived expertise.

            Look in the mirror today and ask yourself if there is some area in your life where you have told yourself you cannot fail. This will be where you are most vulnerable. If you will always remain pliable, humble, and thankful, you will not only be able to succeed as you apply your own gifts and talents, but you will be able to function with a bold peace when the weather of change throws your season into time of uncertainty.

Gary Miller
gary@outdoortruths.org

Outdoor Truths

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