Embrace Your Time Outdoors

Throughout the course of a typical lifetime, the average American has the opportunity to see eight decades of sunrises and sunsets. In the early years of our lives, our hours are spent learning, observing, and playing. As we get older and enter adulthood, our priorities shift to work and spending our days maximizing the future while taking care of current responsibilities. This includes ourselves, our families, and planning for a comfortable, meaningful retirement where we can finally enjoy life at a slower pace. 

But with time passing quickly as we toil away to meet our goals, it’s easy to forget about living in the current moments that we will never get back. Time is a gift each person is given. Some receive more, some less. Regardless of how much we each possess, a quantity unknown to us all, it’s everyone’s most valuable and finite resource. We can’t save it, get it back with a purchase, or trade worldly possessions for additional minutes, weeks, months, or years. 

Having high expectations for ourselves is essential for a life well lived. The dignity of work cannot be understated, and finding our purpose is the key to lifelong fulfillment. However, taking time to live in the moment ensures life doesn’t pass us by without appreciation or reflection. 

I do this by putting away my phone and getting outside. Nature has a way of calming our minds and softly refocusing our energy. It requires that we get in touch with our instinctive, primal selves. Free of distraction and with observation of our surroundings, the great outdoors has a unique ability to activate gratitude in ways we don’t normally think about. The sunrises we are blessed with light up the day, where we can see the mountains in the distance, the wind blowing through the trees, the ripples of a river, clouds in the blue sky, endless rows of corn in the state Volquartsen calls home, and much more. When the sunset comes along, shadows outline time spent, memories made, and opportunities for tomorrow. 

As Americans, we have the right to get away from it all on the gun range — a place where we are intimately in touch with our senses. We see our targets, smell the gunpowder, crush the dirt beneath our feet, and hear the plinking of bullets hitting steel. We can feel the cold air whipping across our faces on challenging outdoor sessions, or the warm beams of the sun on more pleasant summer days. This environment helps us develop skills we can use not only to hit our targets on calmer days but in the bustling parts of life too. The skills we gain through focus, discipline, and respect in the field, practiced as an individual or with others, translate into all aspects of our lives. 

In the United States, we are blessed with the freedom to pursue our own version of the American dream and the ability to free ourselves by appreciating the world around us. Even better, to do it with others by sharing the experience.

We are grateful for it all. 

-Katie Pavlich