OUTDOOR TRUTHS

First light has always been my favorite time of day. It’s at that time my expectation is at its highest. Whether I’m fishing, hunting or just out, I love the possibilities and excitement the breaking day brings. It seems all game is more active during this period. Every cast is made with great expectations. Every corner of the woods is looked at with great expectations. The skies are filled with great expectations. It’s a feeling only you and I know. I wonder sometimes if that’s not what draws us back to the water or the woods.

It seems much of our daily lives are filled with less than great expectations. Instead, they are filled with expectations of the normal or average type. We expect to go to work, put in a long day, get off, come home, and do it all again the next day. And we usually get what we expect. But when we are in the woods or on the water our mind begins to think outside the normal possibilities. I never go into a hunt with great expectations to shoot a spike. Nor do I rush to get to the lake so I can land that 12-inch largemouth. No, my mind soars beyond the average and beyond the normal to the possibilities of what may lie just beyond the corner or just under the surface. And it’s that dream that makes the experience so exciting. Some people say, “Get real.” I prefer to let my mind take me to the “what ifs.”

God has put within each one of us the capacity to dream. Those dreams are our motivation. They are our great expectations. They get us up early and keep us out late. When put into action they are our contribution to the world. If you think about it, dreams have always taken us where we had never been and allowed us to do things we thought we would never do. If you have a dream, it’s a gift from God given to you, to be used for Him. To not follow that dream would be not only a shame but a sin. As you look to the days ahead, rekindle the dream you have let simmer. It might take you and others places we have never been.

THE VIEWS OF SUBMITTED EDITORIALS MAY NOT BE THE EXPRESS VIEWS OF THE ALABAMA GAZETTE.