For Love...

On my recent vacation I had the opportunity to spend a little "quality" time with my husband. He suggested that we go for a drive into the woods on the Polaris early to see the sunrise and see if we could call in any coyotes. Me, I heard, husband and wife, sunrise, ride in the woods... romantic..... So if anyone knows me knows I am not one to sit still for any long period of time, I am a busy body. I can barely sit through a whole movie, my idea of this bonding time and my husband's idea soon became completely different. My idea of the romantic drive, talking about things we don't have a chance to say and beautiful sunrise photo opportunities awaited me, I could always take a book to read if I got bored waiting on the coyotes to come... or so I thought. His idea of a romantic bonding was me being into one of his hobbies and how liking something that interests him would be "hot" in his mind- turned out completely... not what I expected. I woke up at 3:30, and proceeded to put on my "camo", Super! I headed out to the kitchen where I had a camo mask placed on my face that made me immediately gag... I may have overreacted just a tad when I literally gag and exclaimed "blek what the --- is that" I am from the Midwest and my thoughts turned to my childhood in an instant- does anyone know what I am talking about when I say something smells like lightening bugs- seriously my immediate thought went to the Ball glass jars we collected lightening bugs in as a kid and poked holes in the top so they could breath. That is what this mask smelled like, it smelled like the inside of the bug collection container. Gross! Apparently there is some "scent" that you can put on that will mask your smell so that the predators out there will not smell humans and be more likely to come in when called. Fabulous but not something I desired to breath in or smell like for the rest of the day. People really find this fun? I was informed that I would have to sit still, be still, not talk, move around, make noise, shuffle my feet, or even read and taking pictures turned out to be completely prohibited, well... okay, we were still going to watch the sunrise right? Even though I couldn't capture it's essence. We parked the Polaris, proceeded to walk quietly into the meadow to set up our "calling" camp. with our back to guess what? The sunrise... FABULOUS!, not only did I have to sit quiet, not even next to my hubby, I couldn't move, couldn't read, couldn't talk and couldn't watch anything. But hey I got to enjoy the sound of nature, the birds singing and the trees swaying, the wind! What else could a girl ask for then to be close to God in his creation, and then the noise began. What noise, oh the noise of the call. Distressed animals, whiny animals, animals that sounded like a boy going Daaaad, daaad, daaad- I thought I left my kid at the cabin for some spouse bonding time... Wow, I went from peaceful to stressed out in 2.5 seconds. LOL- after what seemed like eternity of not being able to move, shuffle, talk, etc- and scared out of my mind sitting there, not armed yards away from the hubby, hoping in the back of my mind, praying actually, that one of these "called" animals wouldn't all of a sudden be standing behind me contemplating me for breakfast my hubby says we can move to another location since it had been a half an hour with no results. A half an hour, really- totally seemed like an hour and a half to me! Remember, I don't usually sit still for very long, I am often found fluttering between projects- I didn't even do well with the desk job I had for three years, even then I was on the phone talking! We picked up our belongings and trekked to the next location, set up our stands and waited, listened and called again. After another I sure was a half an hour of all the same things not going on, I hear "BOOM" - I looked over at Steve like do you shoot something searching in the field for our coyote- He looked my way and said he was getting bored so he shot at a bird on top of a plant. Apparently once the gunshot goes off animals in the vicinity scatter. Relief came over me that we were going to be able to leave since we had no more chances of calling in the animal. Steve asked if I wanted to try to shoot a bird. My brain said, "No, not really", I'm not all about killing things, but what are the chances of a rookie shooter like me hitting a bird 50 yards away anyway, so I thought, "okay- he wants me to shoot the gun, I will show that I am interested in his gun!" He helps me get it set up and positioned correctly, tells me to turn off the safety when I am ready. I look through the scope aiming at a bird on top of a very large slightly swaying weed and pull the trigger. Dang nice shot... I killed the poor little blue birdie! Really... I never in a million years expected that. But after all the thoughts racing in my head of how my little morning excursion wasn't turning out like I planned, I think that little shot made my husband and I's bond grow just a little stronger. Not sure I am going to be tagging along on too many hunting adventures. I think I will stick to the fishing I was raised to love. At least I can talk, move and read a book when nothing is biting... lol. Sometimes the smallest little step forward can come out of the most unexpected situations, and when you can take an experience and find one good thing, even if it is only one thing. I was reminded that the present moment was my point of power, rather than complain as I was in my head, I chose to find the one thing that made my trip exciting and that is the moment I shared with others when I got back to the cabin. Ephesians 4:2-3 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.