Her Rolling Banks

Like Charley Pride sang ...

"Walking along, whistling a song, barefoot and fancy free. A big riverboat, passing us by, she's headed for New Orleans. There she goes, disappearing around the bend. Roll on Mississippi, you make me feel like a child again. A cool river breeze, like peppermint leaves ... Now, when the world's spinning round, to fast for me, and I need a place to dream. So I come to your banks, I sit in your shade. Relive the memories, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn...You're the childhood dream that I grew up on. Roll on Mississippi."

Since a little girl, I have spent countless days along the banks of the mighty Mississippi. Miles of river front. Amongst them, are miles of memories. All of my first whitetail harvests are on this piece of land. At the ripe age of six, my first doe. Followed by my first buck. First bow kill aging at eleven. This is a bond (not only with my father, friends and God) ... A bond with her, the Mississippi. She will forever make me feel like a child.

What fascinates me most with the Mississippi, is the rise and fall. Enduring flood waters that sat our boat atop our camps roof. That pushed all of the wildlife away from the thousands of acres. It was another record flood ... Which changes in the blink of an eye ... or so it seems ... To days when my dad and I walk on the sandbars where her waters once rumbled by. Where she tossed logs, fish and her secrets around for no one else to see. In these moments I see the details of not only nature, but life. Life changes in the blink of an eye. With special moments, comes hell and high water. Like the rushing water, life can seem to take you under. The fast and furious floods, they come and go. The special moments where she shows her soul, they come and go. But in those moments, while she shows her hidden beauty ... it is a moment to cherish.