Hunting Season: What I Get

I am the wife of a hunter. Yes, I have my own hunting license and enjoy sitting in the woods. (I even made it to Africa and harvested two beautiful animals!) But I am not the hunter. And like many sportsmen spouses, I might be tempted to lament my husband’s long hours in the woods and wonder, “what do I get?” out of hunting season.

Or I might choose a more positive approach and experience the co-existent beauty in my husband’s passion.

Every autumn, I get whisper shows, free and clear laundry detergent and unscented soap. I get to hear the notification tones of trail camera photos arriving — and I look forward to the good pictures with excitement. My landscaping tools disappear for the greater good of clearing the shooting lanes, and I hear the daily debate over the best place and time to hunt: what is the wind doing today; where have they been moving and at what time; is it cold enough to let them hang?

I get to share in his frustration of hours of sitting with seeing nothing but the devil squirrels who torment the hunter, and I get to share in his excitement from a good-shot hit and the anxious feeling of waiting to track. I get to trudge through tangled brush to help find the deer’s final resting place. I get delicious and healthy meat — processed with more quality and care than anything from the grocery store. I get a freezer full by season’s end and a financial savings on meat for the rest of the year.

I get less time with my husband at home, but more time with a partner who is fulfilled and at peace from the woods. The world can put so much on a person: the icy wind and rain and freezing cold of nature and humans alike. When a hunter sits in the quiet stillness of nature — alone and focused on a single goal with patience and endurance — it reconnects oneself to the beautiful simplicity of life and our purpose here. Every fall, I get to reap the rewards of that beauty.

I love being the wife of this hunter.

“Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.” — Genesis 9:3