The Calling of the Wilderness

The Calling of the Wilderness

            Every year when the air becomes clear and crisp, myself like my father, and his father, we get the calling to the wilderness. The calling to return to the wilderness, to the dense woods, the cold crisp air, the long hours away from luxuries, to the blazing sunrises, and the majestic sunsets, and to the land where a mistake can be your last and is unforgivable by the land. Most people don’t understand why we go, they ask my grandpa,” what will you do if you have a heart attack,” they don’t understand why we want to go, and what draws us to go.

These questions are goods ones and can be answered in some ways; first we go because we are called or in other words we get the itch to go back and see the land. There is a craving to go back, a need to be back in the rough country of northern Minnesota, to see the land as it once was when humans didn’t scar it with roads and cities.

Second we want to go for many reasons, one reason is because we love to see the wildlife, when we are done hunting for the day we all come back to camp and eat dinner all the while talking about what we saw that day, and how many birds got away; for example one year I was riding a trail when I had a red tail fox jump out on the trail in front of me, this was the first red tail fox I had ever saw, and to this day he still strikes my imagination and gives me more the reason to go back so I might have the blessing to see one again. Another reason we all go is to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city life, where you can’t stop to just watch a bird sing in a tree. There are many small reasons that we go, some are different for each of us, but one that we would all agree on is we go for the fellowship.

The things that draw us there have a lot to do with why we want to go, from seeing the wildlife, to the fellowship. Another reason is the thrill of the hunt, from the birds we got either on the ground, in the trees, or flying, and to the ones that got away also.

I know we are not the only ones who get this calling, and others might go for other reasons then ours. Some people may call us crazy, but as Leopold said in his book “Sand County Almanac,” “hobbies don’t have to have any justification or make any since they just have to make you happy.” I believe everybody has a passion for something, this is from God, and I believe that God wants us to go and do these passions but as I have learned from my travels to the wilderness, the best way to enjoy these passions is with others who have the same passions as you. Lastly the best way to enjoy these passions or any passions is to do them with and to God’s glory.