Wednesday, December 27, 2006

My Dad



My fondest memory of my Dad occurred one summer day out in the middle of a mountain lake. “Don't jerk it. Just reel it in real slow, my father whispered. But it was so difficult. I hated to wait for anything. I usually took forever to decide what I really wanted, but once I decided, I wanted it right now. And right now I wanted to catch a fish.

My father seemed to sense my impatience. The big ones didn't get that way by snapping the first thing to hit the water, he said quietly. You'll soon find that anything big and worthwhile usually takes a lot of time.”

Then, with a smile that I will never forget, he added, After all, I've already spent eight years on you.”


Angel Feathers Tickle Me

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your dad is a wise men.
Very nice.

Saludos

rel said...

Angel,
The photo is beautiful.
rle

bulletholes said...

Hopr you don't mind a lengthy comment...

My Dad was a fisherman. I used love to take my Daughter fishing, though she has other things to do these days. You might like this... theren is much wisdom to be found in any activity...

http://www.kellscraft.com/fishermancontent.html


HERE
is the basket;
I bring it home to you.
There are no great fish in it.
But perhaps there may be one or two little
ones which will be to your taste. And there
are a few shining pebbles from the bed of the
brook, and ferns from the cool, green woods,
and wild flowers from the places that you remem-
ber. I would fain console you, if I could, for
the hardship of having married an angler: a man
who relapses into his mania with the return of
every spring, and never sees a little river with-
out wishing to fish in it. But after all, we have
had good times together as we have followed the
stream of life towards the sea. And we have
passed through the dark days without losing
heart, because we were comrades. So let
this book tell you one thing that is certain.
In all the life of your fisherman
the best piece of luck
is just
YOU

"In angling, as in all other recreations into which excitement enters, we
have to be on our guard, so that we can at any moment throw a weight of
self-control into the scale against misfortune; and happily we can study
to some purpose, both to increase our pleasure in success and to lessen
our distress caused by what goes ill. It is not only in cases of great disasters,
however, that the angler needs self-control. He is perpetually
called upon to use it to withstand small exasperations."


One of the stories concerns his most exciting fishing moment. It occurs as he is merely catching bait.

The chapter ends;

“I see it now. A crisis is really the commonest thing in the world. The reason why life sometimes seems dull to us is because we do not perceive the importance and the excitement of getting bait.”