Great Art

Check out Joel's work great art! Year on the Fly

an old gun and a young boy

In my family shotguns and fall mornings went together like pancakes and sausage. This past fall I had the pleasure to take both my sons (Liam 15 and Kohl 13) to a Pheasants Forever Youth Hunt in Central Indiana. My boys got to enjoy shooting clays and learning about not only pheasant hunting but the hunting tradition. The day was capped off by each boy getting to go to the field with a guide, a dog and dog handler after two planted birds. As a parent I got to watch from the clubhouse as the events unfolded, what an exciting thing to watch. My oldest son was hunting with my grandfather’s 12 gauge Ranger. My dad had passed away the previous summer and I was blessed to receive this shotgun, I had long admired it for its history and beauty. The history of this gun was quite a story; when my Grandfather was about 12, had sold a prized 4H hog so he could purchase the Ranger from Sears and Roebuck, he ordered from the local catalog store. Shortly after receiving the gun he came down with the mumps and was in bed for quite a while, but he put the time to good use. Grandpa hand checkered the stock and forearm slide, he also inlaid a maple checkerboard pattern in the stock and added some maple inlays on the bottom of the stock, and as a final touch impressed two copper insignia (one with his name and the other his hometown) one on each side of the stock. At the end of the day we took pictures and then I told my boys the story of the shotgun. That Ranger is nearly 90 years old and has been used in the field for nearly 9 decades. Tears filled my eyes as I told this story to my boys, they never met my Grandpa and never hunted with my Dad but somehow I felt they were there with us in the field that day.

Rain Rain Rain

It rained last night/this morning almost an inch and a quarter. What a blessing. A very "sad" result of the storm is that an oak well over 100 years old is now gone. The oak stood in the middle of a field down the road. When we returned from church we noticed it was gone, fallen into the corn that surrounded its refuge. It made me think about how we hold on to something that is tried and true and we begin take it for granted, like this oak tree that had stood for over a century. I think it probably had rotted inside and because of the drought it was unable to stand the high winds. I guess when something is left alone because it looks healthy on the outside and doesn't get the proper care (water in this case) it can in the moment of stress fall apart. I think we are that way as humans. I have known people that have looked good from the world's view but inside they were rotting away. All it took was exposure to a "high wind" or "storm of life" to break them down. Maybe it was the rot of loneliness in a marriage that lacked intimacy and the high wind of compliments came blowing in from another source other than their spouse and then it happened a storm of epic proportions comes thundering in. It shatters a relationship that from the outside looked strong but it shattered in the storm. Could it have been avoided? Could it have been redeemed? I believe the answer is yes but we have to be vulnerable enough to show signs of stress. Speak up don't stand off like the oak in the middle of the field where no one could see the signs of stress. Get help to alleviate the stress, counseling and prayer are great preventatives to emotional rot, just like proper water and fertilizer would have been for that tree. Be in the right environment, get away from the winds blowing in from the wrong direction (compliments from another source other than their spouse) and move into an environment that is protected from rot, turn to your spouse and not somewhere outside the marriage for affirmation. If that oak would have been in an environment like a forest or pasture it may have weather the storm because it would have been more protected than standing alone in the field. Watch where you are and where you get your emotional and spiritual affirmation don't go looking out in the "field"