A column for deer season: Lessons learned from hunting

Chris Hardie takes a sip from his grandfather’s Thermos.

Hunting season is upon us. For some, it's time to fill the freezer with venison. For many hunters, it's also a time for reflection. "Life is measured by the passage of time and the season of deer hunting gives me plenty of moments to reflect on past memories," writes Chris Hardie for the Wisconsin Newspaper Association.

"This is my 47th year of gun deer hunting," Hardie writes, "and there is no place I’d rather be on the opening morning than sitting in the woods with my back against a tree. I’m carrying on a tradition started by my grandfather and carried on by my father."

Hardie misses his father and grandpa as friends and hunting partners, "but I feel their presence in the silence of the woods and learned hunting from both of them. . . . Grandpa had a fantastic hunting spot that overlooked an open valley between the woods where deer always crossed. . . . Dad taught me patience – sitting in a good spot and waiting for the deer to come could be very productive. But it took me a few years to learn that lesson, as I would easily get cold or bored as a teenager."

Grandpa had "an old butter knife that he jabbed into a punky log on his deer stand. He’d pull that knife out from the log, wipe it on his pants and butter up the lefse," a soft Norwegian flatbread. Years after his grandpa's death, Hardie found that old knife on the forest floor. "I still have the knife, as well as the Thermos that Grandpa used and one of his old flannel shirts. I wear the shirt the day before the hunting opener and carry the Thermos into the woods every year."

Hardie concludes, "Last year I had the good fortune of harvesting a big buck. Whether I pull the trigger this year is really not that important to me anymore," Hardie shares. "It’s a time of solitude and reflection. . . .Hunting has helped teach me some humility, the virtue of patience and a deep appreciation for creation, bundled with the value of tradition and family. And I still have some lessons to learn."