Competitive or Contemplative?

During my stay at the safari camp we made several game drives. This is where 5 or 6 people load up in specially outfitted cars and a local guide drives you around the game reserve to look for animals. We saw the "big five" which includes lion, cape buffalo, elephant, leopard, and rhino. We saw many different antelopes, hyenas, jackals, birds, both large and small, and hippos. It became a game to see who could spot and identify the animals first. I found myself getting caught up in the game. I was getting really competitive about it when I remembered an epiphany I had on one of my fishing trips to Alaska.

I had grown quite competitive on one of the days on the river, and I was losing. I had gotten tense and angry and it made me mad to hear that someone else had a fish on. Finally I hooked, played, and landed a magnificent rainbow trout which for most people would be a fish of a lifetime, but for me was only one of many great fish caught on that trip. As I revived the fish prior to releasing it, I had several feelings. I was relieved that I had finally caught a fish, but I was a couple hundred yards from anyone else, so I couldn't show it to anyone. Suddenly I noticed how breathtaking the scenery was. I hadn't noticed it in my frenzied attempts to catch up with the other guys in my fish count. I noticed how beautiful are the black spots on the rich green back of a rainbow trout. And I noticed that something is missing when you don't have a friend to share in a significant moment. As I released that fish, I released my competitiveness and purposed to look beyond the target and see the surroundings. I determined to bring others in on the experience, whatever the experience might be.

When I remembered that, I began to look past the rhino and see the endless grasslands fading into the mountains on the horizon. Look left of the hippo and there is the pile of rocks which hold back the water long enough for the water to pool and form the habitat for the hippos. When the water spills over the rocks, it cascades downhill in a milky froth until it reaches its resting place in the next pool downriver. What is in that next pool?

Now for me, the game drive, or fishing trip, or life itself is not so much a contest to be won as it is an adventure to be enjoyed. And shared with others.