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| Your's truly. Found this cache will bird hunting Yes, Timmy's in hand. Cache is a peanut butter jar wrapped in white camo tape. Hidden just out of sight in a downed tree. |
Back when I was a child - by definition I speak of chronological years, I was kind of mischievous young Nish. Let me give you an example. I recall going to church with my Aunt and Uncle as I did on several occasions. I was way, way in the back row playing and not really paying attention, as I should have. For some reason I honed in on what the preacher was saying. I vividly recall him looking over the congregation pointing his finger in dramatic fashion and bellowing, "What do you think Jonah did as he sat in the belly of that big fish?" I sat up and said, I think he did this!" - I placed my lips on my arm and blew, making a loud farting noise. I thought it was the funniest thing that happened inside the walls of that United Church. Unfortunately, for me, my Aunt didn't think so. You can even read back in a few of my entries to see how much of a good boy I had been.
Then there was the 3 year stretch that I would hunt high and low for the Christmas gifts that my parents bought and hid so poorly in our house. If some of the gifts were already wrapped I would make sure to carefully peel back the gift wrap where it was taped and take a look. Masterfully, I would overlap a new piece of tape over the old one - I was so clever. Or I'd wake up in the wee hours of Christmas morning and do the same thing, and sneak back to bed happy and content that I accomplished my mission. Only to put on a show of being surprised come time to actually open up my gifts. I will you in on a secret - the thrill of opening gifts was lost so I stopped after my 3 years. Mom never ever found out - until now if she reads this. By now the statutes of limitations has kicked in for this sort of crime so she can not touch me.
Then there was the time in grade 4 when our class was having a math test. It was all division questions. I hated math. I hated division. PERIOD! I played up the sick routine pretty good the day before and thought I missed the test. I was wrong. So instead of tackling the mountain of division questions I decided to look to my left where, Spidey sat, scribbling away answers to the test. So, there I go occasionally doing a few of my own questions because the teacher always walked the class ready to pounce on those who would dare to cheat in her class. Seriously, she was a scarey looking haggard thing. So in all I used to little over half of Spideys answers. Well wouldn't you know it. I had all my answers correct and all of Spidey's answers were not only wrong but way out of the ball park. Yes, I was caught. I cheated off the dumbest guy in class.
Back to geo-caching. There is an exhilaration when I end up finding a cache all on my own. It's funny because I have a smile on my face, sometimes I even do a fist pump in the air after find a difficult hide. However, there is one particular cache have been searching for over 13 months with no success. Over that time span I literally looked for this one cache twice a month, at times in knee deep high snow spending at least 20 minutes on each encounter.You do the math!
Finally, I decided to e-mail the owner of this cache and ask for a hint. A spoiler. A hint was given and in 2 minutes it was uncovered. The thing is - the exhilaration and the thrill that I experienced when finding these elusive items on my own was not there. My immediate thought raced back to those three Christmas when I cheated myself out of the thrill of opening a unknown gift. I am glad I found that cache but not how it came about. I felt cheated and I did that to myself.
Here is the moral of this story. It is always better to obtain the prize out of what you put an honest effort into, rather than taking a short cut. Life does have its challenges. Out of those challenges it has its rewards. Fight for what you know you can get out those challenges. When you do and you are successful, the reward that you obtain in gaining the prize far out weighs the feelings of regret that you have in getting by taking a short cut.
Someone once said, "Don't worry so much about your self-esteem. Worry more about your character. Integrity is its own reward." If life were judged by how well I found my geo-caches I guess I would of failed the test. Be all that you can be!
Until next time,
Chi-Meegwetch
Baamaapii |
| Here is a cache that is hidden in the corner remnants of an old cabin, |
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| A cache looking like a mossy covered rock. Stared at it 3 X's. After that I knocked on it to discover it was hallow. |
