Don’t Look Back

In Mississippi, in the 80's, you could get your driver's license at 15, so by the time I was 15 and some change I was able to cruise around my map dot town of Lucedale, Mississippi, and the surrounding rural areas.

Deer hunting was a favorite pastime of mine growing up and I hit the woods pretty much every chance I got. With my dad at work, and my brothers too young to join me that meant I usually went alone during the week.

We hunted very rural Green county, and it wasn't uncommon for me to find myself 45 minutes from home, miles from civilization, waaaay back in the woods, completely alone.... at 15 years old.

Just a kid with a truck, a high-powered rifle, and a mother at home praying I rolled back up an hour or so after dark. Sooner or later, I always did.

If you are a hunter, then you know this, if not let me let fill you in on something special about hunting, it's called "the walk out"....

The walk out is special, almost spiritual sometimes, depending on the setting.

If you are hunting a clear cut or a big field, where it gets dark slowly, and you get to walk out towards, or into, a horizon that still has a slight orange glow to it, with a sky full of stars overhead, especially with one of your sons, man its everything, it's peaceful and serene and just beautiful, but....

If you are back in the woods, when that sun goes down it gets dark fast. I mean can't see your hand in front of your face dark, and when that walk out is long, and you are all alone, and you are 15 years old.... all, and brother I mean ALL, the demons of the woods come to walk out with you.

Even at 15 years old I knew, logically, that there was nothing in the Southern Mississippi woods that was going to eat me but, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't walk very far without whipping my flashlight around.... and looking back.

Fast forward almost four decades later, through all the nerve-racking deep woods walk outs as a kid, and through all the walk outs since I grew up and grew out of it, never once when I turned and looked back.... was there ever anything there.

The only thing that was ever there was the nonsense my mind conjured up. All of it a product of one thing, fear of the unknown.... placed there by the enemy.

Looking back at those collective miles and hours of walkouts over the years I wonder how much time I wasted, how much peace and serenity I missed, by turning around to see what was behind me?

Thing is…. there was nothing there then, and there is nothing there today. What really matters in this life, is what is in front of us, not behind us.

So, perhaps the best thing we can do with each day we are given is to keep moving forward, in Faith, not in fear, and.... don't look back.

Get In The Boat. Do Your Part.

Forward.... From Nose To Toes!

Shane / #16