14 Comments

This sounds like a great course and I really enjoyed your recounting it here. I was captivated by it because its thoughtful/reflective writing about hunting and that excites me. The more I think/write/convey about hunting, I am amazed by the difficulty of conveying some of the feelings we have about hunting itself; the primal, especially. I do believe it taps into something deep.

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Thanks, Jesse. Appreciate the sentiment and feel the same way. I think that’s why writing about it is so helpful — it helps make it “real.”

If you can find the time, I’d highly recommend taking a course at MPSS. Their awareness/spiritual tracking class is next on my list.

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Very cool. I'll check it out.

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This is an absolutely beautiful story.

I'm also big-time looking forward to the CWD Radical Living curriculum. Bring it!

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Thanks, Alice! It's a work-in-progress, for sure!

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Deer are always much bolder in the dark. Like they know you’re no threat. Perhaps they even sense we lack night vision.

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Mike at MPSS might suggest that the energy we're projecting in the dark -- when we're not in full "hunt" mode -- is much different than the energy we project when we're still hunting or in a stand or blind. The deer pick up on that, I'd imagine, that we're not really a threat, yet.

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It’s funny because I’m not much on woo out there but I deliberately do not think “kill” when a deer is coming in until the moment I’m ready to shoot. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had them come in and sense something because I’m projecting too much aggressive energy.

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“It’s all in your imagination… until it isn’t.”

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I, personally, am glad it was not 7:05 am....

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Wow. I feel as though I were right there with you--hearing the breathing, seeing the nostrils flare, smelling the damp air. I, personally, am it was not 7:05 am. That would have been like killing a secret society of silent friends. Those deer needed to live that day.

I love you. Your mind never ceases to impress me.

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“Those deer needed to live that day.”

I didn’t make that connection — but you’re right. Maybe reading this newsletter is indeed rubbing off on you!

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Beautiful story, Lou. It must be an incredible feeling to be part of the forest, with all its rhythms.

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Thanks, Eli -- sublime experience, indeed!

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