Terry Drinkwine Outdoors!

Maybe it’s the hustle bustle of the season; the seemingly endless commitments of holiday lunches, dinners and parties. Or maybe it’s the crowds of people on the road and in almost every place I need to go to satisfy my obligations of the season to family and friends. I use the word obligation like it was a chore. It isn’t of course, it’s just that there seems to be so much to do and so little time to do it in, I feel as though I’ve been AWOL from the one place I can be me without working at it.

I enjoy Christmas, I always have. I especially like seeing the grandkids go nuts with anticipation on Christmas morning, waiting their turn to open a gift. I like to watch “She Who Must Be Obeyed” when she opens her gift and give me the look …”I thought we weren’t going to get each other anything,” then hand me a gift.

Seamus just sits and waits for all the fuss to subside, then when he gets to put his head into his stocking hanging on the mantle, his stubby tail goes crazy, making his entire body shake until he digs out the bone or toy.

I’ve been fortunate to only having spent one Christmas in my lifetime away from family. That was Christmas 1968, the year I was in Viet Nam …I guess you could say I was with family then too.

But it all takes a toll on my nerves or sanity or whatever you want to call it. In quiet moments, I think about standing in my Jordan, feeling the force of cold rushing water envelope my legs as I cast to a spot I think holds a trout. No thoughts, no expectations and no agenda. Only the quiet of the valley and the noise of the gurgling water and the splash of a native when my offering is accepted.

It’s just a river, an apolitical entity that expects nothing yet offers total peace.

It’s all good.

TD