By Gary Miller
First light has always been my favorite time of day. It’s at that time that my expectation is at its highest. Whether I’m fishing, hunting or just out and about, I love the possibilities and excitement the breaking day brings. It seems that all game is more active during this period. Every cast is made with a great expectation. Every corner of the woods is looked at with a great expectation. The skies are filled with a great expectation. It’s a feeling that only you and I know. I wonder sometimes if that’s not what draws us back to the water or the woods.
It seems that 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 a great expectation 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 took us where we had never been and allowed us to do things that 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 ahead to a new year, rekindle the dream you have let simmer, and this year might be your best yet.
Gary Miller can be reached via e-mail at Gary@outdoortruths.org.
