This week, I’d like to share some thoughts.

While hunting, we have time to think, we have time to do an inventory of ourselves, we have memories we enjoy, we have memories we might like to forget, and we use this time to work these things out in our own minds.

I find that I think a lot about the seasons gone by. I’m old enough now that I can usually fill up my day in a tree stand just thinking about the seasons gone by.

I remember some incredible shots that I have managed to make, and some easy ones that I managed to miss. I remember bitterly cold years and others just too darn hot. I remember the people who taught me to hunt, my grandfather, my father, my uncles, my friends. I have enough memories to cycle through that I don’t ever have to be bored while out in the woods.

My 17-year-old twins, Robert and David, have to find other things to think about beside their past seasons. I wonder what they think about. Today, I thought of one memory that is probably always near the top of their list.

Robert and David had a friend, Brandon, who hunted with us a few times. He was a genuinely nice boy. Robert and David seemed to enjoy his company — a real down-to-earth kid who loved the outdoors. Just like Robert and David, Brandon also liked to ride his dirt bike.

One day, Robert was reading a text and told me Brandon and another boy had been killed. It seems that Brandon and his friend had been riding dirt bikes behind Brandon’s home without helmets and they hit head-on. Robert and David took this pretty hard, and we attended the funerals.

The other day, I saw that David had posted to Brandon’s Facebook page that he still thinks about him. I’m sure it is near the top of his tree stand list of thoughts. I’m also sure that Robert has Brandon on his list, too, and now I’ve added him to mine.

Brandon may not be with us, but he will live in our thoughts, just like my grandfather, my father, my uncles and friends while we run through our own tree stand list.

Who is on your tree stand list of thoughts? Be sure to keep them fresh by getting out in the woods.

Until next week, good luck and good thoughts.

BOB RUDZIK is a Newsoms resident. He can be reached at outdoors@tidewaternews.com.