A Good Perspective

Change is a funny thing. Oftentimes welcomed with open arms and seen as a fresh start, it can also be unnerving; a force that seemingly propels you forward to the unknown with little to no control over the final outcome. Change, at the scale that has rocked our little community recently, is scary, to put it mildly.

 

I personally find myself clinging to whatever bits of “normal” still exist through so much turmoil. While there’s much that cannot be anticipated over the next months, even years, turning to the outdoors brings things into focus for me.

There’s at least a month of good ice fishing to go, which will lead us to early spring and a chance to get out and hike around for shed antlers. The songbirds will start returning in droves, their gentle songs serenading us as we enjoy the sunny outdoors. When the ice leaves the lakes, there will be the opportunity to pull the little aluminum 12-footer out of the shed out to visit some of the small lakes in our backyard, dragging a lure around searching for those elusive 20-pound lakers. The rainbows will be darting after worm-laden hooks, soon to be tucked into the smoker to make delicious smoked trout.

Morels will soon dot the fire scarred landscape, as a flourish of green erupts through the untouched forest. Not long after, the huckleberries and saskatoons will be ripe for the picking, overflowing our ice cream pails and ready to be made into pies and jams.

With the blink of an eye, the cool nights of autumn will start to take hold and those deep green trees will be painted with tinges of gold and red. The hustle of hunting season and winter preparation will make the days roll by with surprising speed, as we enjoy every last bit of warm weather before winter blankets our backyards.

 

We have no choice but to roll with the punches that life throws our way, no matter how hard they may become. I take a surprising amount of comfort in the fact that despite what we can’t control, there is the reliable ebb and flow of the seasons to ground us no matter what is occurring at a given time.