Great Horned Owls are majestic yet mysterious birds. There isn't much better late at night than hearing an owl hoot and then have it answered by another owl off in the distance. I can lay in bed and just listen to them with a smile on my face wondering where they are and what they are doing. That said, finding them in the daytime is incredible too. I have spent many hours chasing owls this spring and actually come away with some incredible experiences. People like to tease me about always lugging my video camera around but if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to capture my experiences to share with others. I haven't made many videos lately but I have shared still images that I have captured with my camera. These aren't the full immersion experiences I prefer to share but they are still a wonderful way to share my time in nature with the people I care about.
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| Great Horned Owl near Coal Creek |
This brings us to milksnakes. Milksnakes are the snake of 1000 rocks. They are quite literally the diamond in the rough. You have to be patient and persistent to find one and when you do, nothing else matters. Fate is a bitch sometimes and the snake gods have been against me all spring but I finally found a milksnake just last week in the most unusual spot. I was looking for bullsnakes along the dam of a lake and was completely content with having just found a pair mating. I didn't need a change or anymore snakes. I certainly didn't need a milksnake - I was happy with what I had found already and then BAM! - a milksnake was basking in the weirdest spot. It was far from any anticipated home for this species. It just swept me off my feet and completely threw me for a loop. Fate is a bitch but I certainly like her because she always brings the unexpected and the unexpected can be as amazing as finding a milksnake.
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| Milksnake found when completely unexpected. |
But, this is how Fate works. I can't explain it. But what matters is what you do after Fate choses you. You have to embrace the opportunity. You don't get that many that really matter. You may get another chance to go flip rocks but you may not ever find another milksnake.
As a chronic rock flipper, I have learned to be disappointed in my life. I have learned that not every rock has a milksnake. They don't call them the snake of 1000 rocks for nothing. I have learned that Fate likes to play tricks on you too. Fate likes to watch you suffer as you flip and flip and flip and flip and flip and flip - well, you get the point. That is where hope comes into play. Hope that the next rock has a milksnake.
Hope. That is a word I don't use very often. It really isn't in my go to emotion bank. I rarely have hope unless I am looking for snakes. I feel hopeless in lots of ways throughout my life and that is probably why I am the way I am. This is changing though. A lot of people have invested in me lately and that creates hope. It creates a future. It creates success. I am just struggling with this new hope being created in me. I can flip rocks for hours hoping to find a milksnake. That is easy. But hoping for change in life is a lot harder. I have made some serious drastic changes in my life hoping that they will all work out. I quit a career. I opened a unique and very different business. All this was done on hope that it will all work out. Yes, I have some amazing people supporting me but it is still hope that it works out that keeps me going.
So I guess I should wrap this up by saying that Fate might be a bitch but that I have hope that the next rock will have a milksnake. But, you really shouldn't base your life on fate and hope. That is why I won't stop flipping rocks. I am willing to put in the work to negate fates hold over hope and find the damn milksnake myself. This works for snakes. Will it work in life?
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