Everyday Blessings

It seems like forever since my last post. So much has happened, and we are coming to terms with Tristan's upcoming deployment to Afghanistan. I never realized the intensity of the impact our military service has on those who love us. I find myself telling myself what I have told others so many times: don't listen to the news so much, stay away from related internet sites and support group sites, you must get on with your normal life-that is what he is fighting to protect. All of those things make so much sense until it is your own son or daughter down range. Do pray for my boy and his fellows. They serve to defend us all.

Aunt Dorothy and MC came from Skiatook, Oklahoma for a visit this last week. We overate until our stomachs hurt and then laughed until we thought we could laugh no more. Good memories flowed like fine wine, and all of our lives were enriched yet again. Families are amazing things.

A couple of weeks back, I was running a bit ahead of schedule, and decided to take a side trip to the home and pond of a lodge brother and wet a line. For the first hour or so, I cast more times than I care to remember and received narry a bite. I fished two or three different spinners, a Kelly's green worm (with black stripes, usually a sure thing on a clear-sunny day), and two or three varied patterns of wet flies and poppers. Finally, at the bottom end of the property, I landed a large hybrid bluegill about two and a quarter hand widths in length. With this success in my immediate past, I put down the spinning tackle and the #1 Mepps Aglia spinner with the white and red blade, and returned to the purity of the fly rod. I tied on a small green hand tied frog popper, dropped my line on the dock, and twitched it off into the water. Immediately, there was a flash and a swirl, and my first fish was on. My next cast was a side cast which landed about two and a half feet under the dock. Again, the strike was immediate and dramatic. For the next ten or fifteen minutes, every cast netted a scrappy gill; and then it was over as quickly as it began. This was the sort of action which initially attracted me to fly fishing, and the lesson is always the same. When God sends a blessing into your life, live it with all of your passion and all of your being, because it might end tomorrow. Laugh with an eighty year old aunt until it hurts, for you may not have the opportunity again. Cherish every moment with your children and spouse, for no one knows what the near future might hold. Give thanks to God for every blessing on every day, and don't worry about whether it will be there tomorrow. It is in God's hands, and he has given it to you to enjoy today. And finally, as Forrest Gump so often said, :That's all I have to say about that!"