Finding Time

We are all busy. Unbelievably so, in many cases. Here at Hawk Circle, we seem to go in waves. Summer camp staff training starting=Super Busy. Camp is Underway=Slightly Less Busy. Adirondack Expedition Packing/Prep=Super Busy. Camp ends=Slightly Less Busy. Assembling a Timber Frame Cabin=Super Busy..... well, you get the idea!

When it is so busy, well, it does make it hard to work our jobs, get our yard/house work/chores done, hang out and have family or relationship time in and then rest and relax. Where do we get the time to actually practice skills or learn new skills? How do we find time without having to invent a time machine?

This fall, it is just Trista and myself running Hawk Circle, with a small crew of apprentices, and we are going to be flat out all season. On top of that, I am timberframing cabins, cutting firewood, getting the camp and cabins ready for the winter, teaching several workshops, leading four afterschool programs each week and trying to write my book. When am I going to have time to go Bowhunting? Well, that's the great thing about finding time. You just have to make it happen. You just have to GO!

Each fall, I am so busy that there is no way I will have time, and yet, somehow, I find the time. I just go. Sometimes, I go early in the morning and get back in time for Trista to take Jesse into school in Cooperstown. It isn't a full morning hunt, but it is better than nothing. Other times, I just go in the afternoon, when a school cancels their program, or on weekends or holidays. I go every chance I get.

As the season goes, I somehow find more and more time to get out. It is a great feeling, sitting in a tree stand, or leaning against a big pine and listening to the wind in the trees and the squirrels chasing each other fighting for apples. I seem to settle into a deeper place, almost a sacred place, and though I only have a few hours, it can feel like an eternity.

This fall I am running a workshop called The Sacred Hunt, and if you are a new hunter or just want to get together with a group of us and learn to hunt in a respectful and honorable manner, please feel free to check it out and join us. Looking back on last year, some of the most powerful lessons and skills I learned all year happened during the hunting season, for myself as a man, as a teacher, as a parent and a husband. I learned and I grew and it was good.

Somehow, I managed to get everything done that I needed to do, and the things I didn't get done, well, the world didn't end, either. (It almost did, though! See: Recession!)

The bottom line is, sometimes you have to make a stand. Not against anything, but for yourself, for your own inner knowing, for your own soul to grow and shine. Sometimes you have to do it for the good of the whole, even if it is something that might seem like it is an inconvenience or whatever. You have to trust your instincts.

I know that there are lots of things I would like to do, like go fishing, or visit friends or catch up on my emails or letters, or whatever, but I have my priorities! I know when to push and when to stay home and get my other work done....

The biggest point of this post is to say that even if I, or you, get all of your 'work' done, you still need to find ways to grow, personally, spiritually, and intellectually, or take a retreat to renew yourself or recharge so you can be there, fully present, for the people you love and care about. It seems almost counter intuitive, but life is sometimes like that, isn't it? If you have a personal approach to finding time, to taking care of yourself and your own growth and development, please post and share!

In the meantime, enjoy the last of the summer blackberries and I will leave you with these words:

"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth...not going all the way, and not starting. ” - Buddha

Ricardo