Brad_Colvin
Eight Pointer
The Are they worth it post the other day got me thinking, which is often a dangerous proposition lol. In a lot of ways I owe the wild turkey most of the credit for my life,or at least the quality of it. Ten years ago my wife had a medical emergency that nearly killed her, and has left her permanently disabled and about 75% bedridden. In these last 10 years she has had 9 major abdominal surgeries. Six months later my, at the time 16 year old daughter was diagnosed with cervical cancer. They removed the cancer, but it came back twice. Going from a 2 income home to a 1 income household and being buried in medical bills, not to mention all this occurring during the housing meltdown added to the stress. I ended up losing my house and my truck and having to sell most everything else that was of any value. I got into a really dark place mentally. As a husband and father our job is to be a provider, a protector and a fixer. I found myself not being able to do any of these. I had lost the will to live. Although it was thought about, suicide was not an option but I wasn't living, I was merely existing. I had nothing worth getting out of bed for except to work because I had to try to pay the bills. My friends tried to get me to go deer hunting with them, but every time I did I just ended up sitting in the stand stewing over what was going on at home and wondering what I would be coming home to. I had lost all interest in everything I loved to do. Fast forward to the end of February. I was living in Florida and down there spring tends to come early down there and February is time to start scouting for turkeys. I didn't have a lease anymore so I searched out some of the wma's within an hour of home. I found one in particular and decided to go and check it out one morning. I was just basically going through the motions because that's what you're supposed to do that time of year. I made the hour drive in the dark that morning with no radio, just the thoughts going through my head. When I pulled up to the gate the cool spring air felt different on my face. The whiporwills were serenading me on my walk into the swamp at a spot I had picked out to listen from. I sat down under a huge live oak and waited on dawn. For the first time in almost a year there was nothing running through my mind except being there in that moment. Dawn came and the owls in the swamp were really hooting it up, and then it happened. The most beautiful sound in all of nature, the gobble of the wild turkey. For the next hour 3 gobblers gobbled at every sound in the woods and I just sat there and soaked it all in. As I walked out of the woods that morning I had a weight lifted off of my chest and just for a short time I didn't have a care in the world. I smiled a real smile for the first time in a long time. I found something that gave me the motivation to get out of bed. All I could think of was making it to the next day that I could go to the spring woods again. I ended up killing one of those 3 gobblers a couple of weeks later which just helped fan this fire that was now raging inside of me. Since that spring morning ten years ago the wild turkey has consumed my thoughts and given me the motivation to make it to another day. As soon as the season ends my thoughts are each day brings me one day closer to when I can get to experience the spring woods again. If life throws me a curve ball during the year I just say to myself turkey season will be here soon. Every new spring morning holds new promise. The coffee tastes stronger in the spring. The long quiet drives to the woods are soothing. The walks in the dark woods are filled with optimism no matter what happened the day before. Getting to play the game just one more time is truly a blessing and something I truly live for. It's the only outdoor activity I can go to the woods, walk miles and miles freeze to death in the morning and be drenched in sweat when I get back to the truck after having my butt kicked soundly and still look forward to doing it all over again tomorrow. Add to this my greatest friends are those who share this passion for chasing the grandest of all game birds. I'm sorry for the long post but end the end the wild turkey is worth any amount of effort it takes me to pursue him.
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Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk