As a teenager with a 410, a couple of ferrets and a terrier I had a blissful up bringing. Able to shoot, trap, and ferret to my hearts content, apart from the inconvenience of school, which attempted to turn me into a useful, and compliant tool of society; happily they failed.
In my work helping those who have anxiety and stress I use a thing called mindfulness; its a technique to live in a calm and engaged way. What has often struck me is how this happens naturally in field sports, picture the course fisherman attentive to the twitch of the line and float, aware of the movement of shadows; clouds above and carp moving through the water.
Waiting hidden in a hedge, for rabbits to creep out of their burrows, so I could get a clear shot. I would wait hours lost in nothingness, aware of the breeze and the movement of the sun, such as it was in Wales. I would see nothing and everything, sight lost until movement triggered the synapses in the brain and my focus would zoom in the movement, discerning the shape of rabbit, hare, fox and badger materialising out of the hedgerows at dusk.
Wordsworth perhaps had a clue what was going on when he penned "What is life if full of care, we have no time to stop and stare." It is this ability to drop in attentive meditation, which some call the Zone, this leads to a calmer, and more contented outlook on life.
Hunting being a natural pursuit, it is not surprising it feels right, calms anxiety, and gives us a break from the stress of modern life.
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