It was a typical Friday at work, stuck in the office, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing considering the outside temps were struggling to reach the mid twenties. But as any obsessed addict would do I checked the afternoon temperatures, wind direction and velocity. My mind quickly drifted off to the “what if…” situation, and over the course of the next hour – which involved multiple texts to the wife, an email to the boss, and a phone call to the landowner – it was confirmed. I was going to leave work early and go hunting! I could already feel the adrenaline filter into my veins as I came to the realization that in a few short hours I’d be in a field surrounded by my decoys creating my greatest attempt to bring in even a few of the thousands of geese that would be in the air. The rest of the day at the office was far from productive work but rather meticulous planning of the evening’s hunt. After rushing home, grabbing the dog, my gear, and kissing my wife and kids goodbye, I was off to experience the great outdoors! Within 40 minutes’ time, there we were, Dee Girl (my dog) and I, settled in our layout blind with only 11 full body and 3 shell Canadian decoys and 4 floater mallards spread around us. Just two days prior, over a thousand birds had been feeding in this very location. Geese begin to flood the sky from every direction around me and they were all heading to the same spot… which for some unknown reason happened to be a field about half a mile south of me. I learned quickly that it’s hard to compete with two thousand real geese. Like a black hole, they sucked in every bird in the sky from miles away, leaving me with my 14 decoys feeling rather despair. Just then, as if Mother Nature herself wanted to be sure and keep me on my toes and from ever being able to fully understand and predict the wildlife, flocks of geese began flying back to me away from the black mass in the southern field. I sternly tell Dee Girl to “Stay” and “Watch em!” She locks onto them and excitedly shivers with anticipation. As they near, I can see they have no intentions of actually landing so I make the split second decision to take them as they come over. With my first shot, I drop a Canadian goose and the dog runs after it. Upon arrival she is rather shocked at the shear size of this feathered creature. I yell “Woohooo!”, as loud as I can and go out to grab the goose that my lab refuses to strain her neck on in an attempt to bring it back to me. It has been 4 years since we’ve killed a goose together. After our excitement is halfway contained we get settled back in our blind, eager for the next 45 minutes to unfold. As the sun dips down behind the horizon our hunt comes to an end. I proudly snap a selfie with our harvest, a full limit of geese (3) and a stunning drake mallard. Every bit of our hunt was nothing short of amazing and fulfilling. It’s an emotion that can be quite difficult to describe to a non hunter, but if I were to choose only one word it would be Gratitude. It is these moments that come quite often in hunting that I am thankful for every little thing, person, and experience in my life. My lab is almost 10 years old and has already missed a hunt this year due to the pain of her aging body. The oblivion of knowing exactly how many hunts we have left together but the sure knowledge that there will be an inevitable end is what drives me to truly cherish every moment. Through hunting today I experienced true bliss with an absolute sense of gratitude for my life.