It's been sometime since I sat down and really enjoyed Tradgang. Workloads and changing careers has taken a toll on many things time oriented. Tradgang has certainly been one of them. I pulled this out of some of my earlier writings. I wrote this back when my writing was just starting. I hope you will enjoy the piece. For now it's about all the time I have. Hopefully after the Spring Hunts are over I'll have an enormous amount of material to share form many hunts. Till then, "Big and Tall". CK
(STORY)
"Ride em Big-n-Tall or not at all", were the words he muttered to the wind that day. I gazed into his eyes so blue that the deep blue Sea seemed pale in comparison. I couldn’t help but notice his abrasive appearance brought about through years of uncontrolled beard growth and work in the Sun. This gentleman was unknown to me but it was very obvious through his looks that he would stand out as unique no matter what his surroundings. I’m not sure of the reason he decided to speak these words to me or even if he would remember saying them to me minutes after he walked away. The only thing I knew was that the words seem to have been chipped into the stone walls of my memory. They had been placed delicately in the intersection at the crossroads of my life. I was a child at the time and it took many years to ponder the thoughts of "riding big and tall". I most certainly thought of the meaning often as I found my place in this tough life.
I gazed this morning through the empty canopy of the Oak tree I found myself perched in. As the smoke rose quite spiritually from the water on a nearby pond, the last leaf on the tree I was sitting in clung so tightly to life that it appeared it was fearful of the change that would occur if it let go. Fall had intruded upon Sumer and the resulting intrusion had sent the leaves tumbling forward into the unknown. I had to send out my heartfelt feelings to the last leaf in conveyance of my appreciation of its struggle. I knew all to well how the struggles of life can affect us.
As often happens as we go through life, we forget the impact that our words and conduct may have on those around us.
More often than not, as we age, the words we speak and the conduct we present to those around us is presented without thought of any impact what so ever. How could one ever know the impact of a few words presented at a time so precise that they may forever change ones own life path? Yes, that is a very deep thought but quite a realistic one as well. Words are quite powerful and not unlike the arrows from our mighty bows, may never be returned to the place from where they have come.
As the smoke rose from the pond I wondered of the children of my friends and their future impact on the ever changing world around us. Would there be a Blue eyed stranger in their life’s path that would enter at such a perfect point that they would forever know how to handle the plight of life? Would they themselves handle the struggle by riding big and tall or would they tumble as the leaves from the tree into uncertainty? The ever growing questions pecked away at me.
I’ve traveled far and wide in my relatively short life and the words from a nameless face so many years ago have forever haunted me. In many of my travels I’ve found myself firmly at the podium of decision and each time I’ve found myself there, I hear the words on the wind, "Ride em big and tall" or not at all. When alone in the woods, when in giant crowds, when standing on the Football field in High School, when wandering aimlessly along a busy sidewalk, I’ve often heard the words. I also wander quite often of the impact we have on all those that surround us in what we ourselves present to the world. It sometime seems that no-one is listening. They are there, I promise they are. I also promise that for every thought that will ever enter your mind about not being heard by those around you, there will be one person to whom your words are of total inspiration. Choose them well for they can never be returned to their place of inception.
(Cont tomorrow AM) CK