Mark and Jennifer riding in the back pasture.

Wow. It has been some time since I posted here... 4 years. It surprised me to open this page and see what the last post was. It was Pierce and me on a hunting trip at the Freels Ranch.  So much has happened since then.  The boys have grown up, Pierce is driving, Nathan is at college.  New house, new job, no seminary, struggles of life...

As I think about things, and I do a lot, I wonder where I am, really. So much of what I thought was solid was not... is not...  Don't get me wrong, there is much good in my life, its just not all that I hoped.  Maybe it never is.  We all have hopes and dreams for our children and our relationships. I find those shifting from what I wanted to praying that the Lord will see them through on the journey He has planned for them.  It leaves me reminiscing about times past...

As I went out to hunt the Freels Ranch this last weekend, I hunted the blind Pierce and I hunted last... 4 years ago.  I had not been in there since we shot those deer together.  Seems I left my seat cushion there and there it remained.  I found it washed out, tattered on the edges and moldy.  A forgotten item from a bygone time.  Pierce hasn't hunted with me since that time; never been interested again. I guess we didn't miss the cushion.   But seeing it there certainly made me a bit nostalgic... hopes from the past and many changes from 12 to 16. I brought it home with me and I didn't shoot any deer... Many thoughts.