Daily Positive Thought:  Be Proud of Who You Are

I heard a song by Luke Bryan recently that asked me, “What Makes You Country?”  It made me think about my life and what exactly does make me a country kid from Maine and the list of things is long. So I accept you challenge Luke Bryan and am going to tell you why I am country and most of it has to do with the experiences I had when I was growing up.  There are few things I am happier about than the experience I was fortunate enough to have in my formative years.  It wasn’t always easy, but it was the thing that makes me as country as anyone in the world. I am going to try to boil it down to a few experiences but really there are too many to list in this short space.  I will do my best.

I was Raised in the Woods

Recently, I went camping and hadn’t done that in many years, I still know how to build a fire, and cook food over it. These skills didn’t just come to me, when I was a kid, I spent every summer on the shores of a rural pond in Jefferson, Maine.  If we wanted heat, we needed to start a fire.  We didn’t have to cook on an open fire, but I learned to do it in a pinch.  There was no sewage system in that camp, so we survived using an outhouse.  If you don’t know what that is, well it is a small

building, a ways away from your dwelling, with a hole in the ground under it, I will let your imagination figure out what ended up in the hole.  A small price to pay for the experience.  When we left at the end of the summer, you did appreciate the wonders of indoor plumbing.

Being in the woods, the only water we had running in the house came from the lake, so you had to fetch, carry, and haul all of your drinking water from other places.  This was a daily chore that I was not all that fond off, but you get to understand the value of having drinking water and that it is a precious element.  When it comes to bathing, well that was what the lake was for.  We went swimming several times a day. I never thought this was a hardship, it was just the way things were and the way life moved for me.  It was good.

Freedom and Creativity

I was also very fortunate to have a large playground at my disposal. There were many acres of land and lots of lake for me, my brothers, and other kids on the lake to play on. I would get up in the morning, eat something for breakfast, and be set

free for the day. I was required to eat lunch, and have an adult of some kind watch us when we went swimming, but other than that we were limited only by our imaginations, and the effort we wanted to put forth.  We built things, fished, swam, ran, played, and learned on a daily basis.  I learned to appreciate a soft-wooded path as you ran barefoot from one place to another.

I also learned to have an appreciation for the beauty and power that a lake can have. It provides a lot to you, but you have to respect it or you pay the price.  I learned about the ecosystem of the lake, and all of the thousands of animals that made that lake the center of their life.  Every kind of bird you can imagine, snakes, frogs, fish, turtles, eels, deer, moose, raccoons, beaver, or any other kind of wildlife you can imagine in Maine.  I knew it. Not as a word, but as a part of my life as I ran the paths along the shores of Dyer’s Pond in Jefferson, Maine.

Being Country

Now many years later, the memories of these things are even more valuable. I learned skills that still translate today. I also know what it is to go without, so I appreciate it when I don’t have to. A family was the most important part of being country because without that, you wouldn’t have had the teachers you had. My father was a good teacher and so were my brothers. We learned all about the value

of fire, water, and love.  My mother also instilled a lot of my solid country values as well.  There was always music and singing in the house, and I learned to relate to music because of that.

The best nights I remember are when we would all tramp through the woods along the dirt road to visit my grandparents a few camps down the road. It was maybe a ten-minute walk, on the way it was light out and easy. We would all visit, talk, play, and enjoy our family time and then it would be time to go home and as a group, we would walk together following my father and his flashlight through the woods until we were all safe at home.  As we were tucked in and read to, we would fall asleep every night to the sounds of the woods. Crickets, frogs, and birds.  A loon calling from his lonely swim on the lake.  We fell asleep with the dreams and hopes of what the next day in the woods would bring.

I know that I do not have the singular possession of a rural upbringing, I hope there are thousands of people who have the same kind of background as I did.  When you remember it, it allows you to have a strength inside that you can call on, in any situation. Be brave, be resourceful, respect your environment and be grateful for what you have. That is some of what makes me country.