The opening line of one of my favorite songs says, “God bless America, land that I love.” Another line is, “From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam, God bless America, my home sweet home.”
I love America’s great outdoors. I grew up in Missouri and still call it my home sweet home. It is a state blessed with natural beauty and abundant places to enjoy outdoor activities. I have also experienced the mountains, prairies, and oceans in many other places in America.
I have hiked and fished the mountain lakes and streams of Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Hawaii. I have walked and fished the beaches of Hawaii, along with Florida, California, Texas, Maine, and Alabama.
I have enjoyed freshwater lakes, rivers, and streams while fishing in my home state of Missouri. Also, Arkansas, Kansas, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Illinois, North and South Dakota, New York, and Minnesota. I have made a lot of fishing trips to Wisconsin lakes to fish with our son and his family. I hope there will be more fishing trips there.
My wife and I have been to ten of America’s National Parks. Yellowstone, Glacier, Hawaii Volcanoes, Great Smoky Mountains, Carlsbad Caverns, Mammoth Cave, Rocky Mountain, Acadia, Grand Teton, and Everglades. They were all wonderful places to visit.
The history and majestic beauty of these places will always be in our storehouse of memories. We would love to see all the National Parks before the good Lord calls us home. We better get busy though. There are 53 more for us to visit and they cover 85 million acres.
Still on my bucket list is a trip to Alaska to fish, see Mt. McKinley, and enjoy the culture of that area. There may be a few more fishing or hiking places we might go to but Missouri is home and like Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home.”
Wherever you live, I hope some of your most pleasant memories will come from the great outdoors. I urge you, if you possibly can, to fish, hunt, camp, hike, and explore all over America with your family and create memories that will last a lifetime.
May a special hiking trip always linger in your mind. May you go on a fishing or hunting trip you will never forget. May you forever remember a once-in-a-lifetime camping adventure.
When people from other countries come to America, they marvel over the abundance of fish and wildlife, our National Parks, and all the places we can go and enjoy the great outdoors. Most surprising to them is the availability of these resources to ordinary people. In other parts of the world, only the privileged can walk to a stream and catch a trout, hunt deer, or pitch a tent in front of a magnificent view.
We take our beautiful lakes, streams, oceans, mountains, prairies, and forests for granted sometimes. Thankfully, our forefathers knew the value of the Purple Mountains majesty and the fruited plains and made natural resources the focus of their songs and lives.
Here in Missouri, we sometimes forget that we would not have the outdoor opportunities we do have without the continued efforts of the Conservation Federation of Missouri, Missouri Department of Conservation, Missouri State Parks, Army Corps of Engineers, and others. We need to thank them and support them in any way we can.
Whatever state you live in, you need to do the same for your state’s conservation organizations as well as the US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service. They are using your donations and tax dollars to benefit your outdoor experiences.
In America, we have our choice of lakes, rivers, and streams to catch fish, paddle or boat around, play in their water, or relax on their banks and listen to the sounds of nature. We have many forests and prairies to make hunting memories. Campgrounds are waiting for you to come to enjoy sitting around a campfire and listening to a crackling fire and night sounds. Lots of hiking places with magnificent scenic views await your footprints.
They are all places you can go for at least a few days and relax from a hectic work week, either alone or with others. They are places to think and pray. Places to get away from traffic and all the screens you look at all the time. They are places to renew your mind or recharge your body.
The cost is either free or minimal. The physical and mental benefits are many.
It is better than a $100-per-hour psychoanalysis for putting our lives into perspective. Every season of the year, I encourage you to get outside and enjoy America’s Outdoors.
One of my favorite outdoor quotes, among many, is one by Anne Frank that says, “The best remedy for those afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy amidst the simple beauty of nature.”
As bad as it may seem at times, we need to thank God we live in America. In America, among other freedoms, we have the freedom to become what we want to be, the freedom to believe what we want, the freedom to worship as we please. I cannot imagine America’s great outdoors was created by some cosmic explosion or evolution. I believe God created America’s great outdoors for all of us to enjoy and take care of. I have the right in America to be bold in telling others what I believe. You have the right to do the same. It is up to each of us to accept or reject.
I love America’s outdoors. Because of that, I also believe, God inspired me to write this poem.
GOD’S MIGHTY HAND
I have had people ask me just how I could believe
in a God I do not see or his spoken words receive.
I smile and explain why I have no doubt.
It was God and his great power that brought the great outdoors about.
All I have to do is look around the times when I am there.
I see Him in the sunrise. That’s why I am so aware.
I see Him in summer rains that nourish the trees and wildflowers.
I see Him in a summer star-lit night. What a witness to his power.
I see Him in a campfire as the flames spark and dance.
I see Him as a deer sneaks through the woods and I get a fleeting glance.
I see his beauty in the butterfly’s wings,
the bronzed feathers of a turkey, and the colors of the spring.
I see Him in the sparkling water as I make another cast.
I think of all He has done for me so many times in the past.
I hear Him in the early light when the birds begin their songs.
I hear Him when the thunder rolls and is so loud and strong.
I hear Him when the geese fly high in the sky.
I hear Him when an eagle cries. It is something you cannot buy.
I feel Him in a gentle breeze and I say a prayer.
When the sun shines warmly on my face I know that He is there.
His strength shows in the mountains and the ever-pounding seas.
The lightning bugs’ twinkling lights show his love for me.
If you will only stop, look, and listen when outdoors on the land.
You will see, hear, and feel that it was all created by God’s mighty hand.
Whether you are a believer or not, there is one more line from God Bless America I want you to think about. “Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above.” In our broken and divided America, we all need God’s light from above.
