My daughter and her family love the outdoors. From the first year they were married, she and her husband have gone camping annually. Sometimes in a tent, sometimes in a rough and rustic cabin, and usually at the Allegany State Park in New York. They enjoy hiking and biking, and nights by the campfire. Their two children grew up loving it, too. Now April and Jonathan include me in their adventures. They have accommodated me by renting a handicapped compatible cottage with all the utilities including an indoor bathroom!

One of the things we really enjoy is looking for wildlife. We take long rides and pleasant walks to see what we can see. This year we were blessed with the sight of many deer including a fawn, a few wild turkeys, a fox, a few hawks, a turtle, an unusual little black animal we didn’t recognize and an abundance of ground hogs (I call Allegany State Park “ground hog heaven”). We were hoping to see a bear (from a distance and in the safety of the car!), but that just didn’t happen.

It is especially exciting when the wildlife comes to us! We brought some of our potted flowers with us so they wouldn’t die while we were gone and to decorate the porch of our cottage. We weren’t even settled in yet when I saw a hummingbird enjoying the impatiens at the end of the porch.

It didn’t take the tiny bird long to find them, and a few hummingbirds returned daily to enjoy the flowers. The fragrance beckoned them to come.

One evening as we sat by the campfire, we caught sight of some movement on the porch. To our surprise and delight there was a raccoon checking out the picnic table! I suspect we left some crumbs behind.

Perhaps the most exciting wildlife visitor came because April called it. She has an app on her phone that records the birds we hear and identifies them as we listen. It also plays the sounds of particular birds we might want to hear and know. In the mornings as we sat on the porch drinking our mugs of tea and coffee, we enjoyed the sounds of all the different birds and discovering who was who. One morning April used her app to play the sound of a redheaded woodpecker. In no time at all a very large bird came swooping past the porch. The wingspan of that huge woodpecker was amazing and beautiful! He settled at the top of a nearby tree before flying away. I am certain he was disappointed to find there was no other woodpecker in the area. Reminds me of an old proverb my mother used to quote: “Birds of a feather flock together.” He came looking for a friend.

As I was thinking about the wildlife that came to our campsite, I realized that what we put out affected what we got. Without those flowers we would never have enjoyed the hummingbirds and the call of a woodpecker brought us an amazing experience.

And such is life. What we put out affects what we get! Certainly we can’t control all the circumstances of our life, but what we do and say certainly affects them. Simple things like dressing properly and speaking clearly can affect the outcome of a job interview. How you respond to a hurt or a tragedy can determine how your future might be. In the heat of an argument you could lose a friend by what you say or you can remember the wisdom of the proverb: “A soft answer turns away wrath.”

It’s a bit of the sowing and reaping principle. Or as some people say: “What goes around comes around.” What we put out affects what we get.

My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same. –Job 4:8

So be careful what you put out there! When we arrived at our reserved campsite, one of the papers April and Jonathan had to sign was concerning the bears. They had to acknowledge that they would keep all their food stored inside the cabin. Not even food in closed containers or coolers could be left outside on the porch. Why? Because it would be an open invitation to any bears in the vicinity to come and get it! If you don’t want bears in your campsite, don’t put it out there!

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