A time for contemplation, A time for new beginnings

On this rainy morning, as I relax with coffee mug in hand and listen to the heavy drops hitting the trees, I wait the birth of my first grandson.

It’s a time for contemplation…. to regard the progress of life; A quiet moment to think, and remember, and give vision to the future.

A few weeks back I handed my grandson’s father his own big bore rifle. Not the very first occasion he’d held it, no it was many years ago that he originally felt it buck against his shoulder. A recent move on their part found the rifle stored in my safe, and now it was simply going back home with him. There to join his first .22 rifle, and his first shotgun; All veterans of long walks in the woods and hours on the range. Some of that spent with me as we shared the time.

Now I look forward, in about eight years or so, to teaching a new generation of the family. My mind turns to ‘first guns’, and the impressions they make on a young soul.

My own first rifle was simple Marlin .22 bolt action. With it I roamed many a field and wood, taking game and defending the world from marauding pine cones. Later, a pump action shotgun bought with saved lunch money and cash earned cleaning up equine exhaust products. Further down the road…. a single shot 30-30… the rifle I took my first buck with.

My middle son claimed his Savage 325b that day, and held it with all the loving care I know he’ll hold his new son. Given him as a reward for helping out some friends of ours, the rifle was old a generation ago. Back then a bolt action 30-30 was an inexpensive rifle designed for no frills hunting. Harvest a deer or three, and then back into the closet it went. In my sons hands it turns into seven pounds of solidified memories.

That’s what I’ll need to come up with for my grandson in a very few years. Something with character and soul; something that will hold all the memories we’ll build together.

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven — A time to give birth, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to tear down, and a time to build up. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and a time to shun embracing. A time to search, and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep, and a time to throw away. A time to tear apart, and a time to sew together; A time to be silent, and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate; A time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8