Hmmm, two hours of fishing and not so much as a nibble. Then three casts, three minutes, three fish. Then another hour of casting with nothing to show for it. Is there a lesson in here somewhere?
Yes, I think there is. Much of life unfolds this way. Those uplifting “Ah yes!” moments surrounded by the more mundane ebb and flow of everyday living.
I often lament at all the stuff that gets in the way of the things I love to do. The endless, repeating array of things I must do to earn a living, live up to my obligations and generally keep the boat afloat as I find my way down the river of life.
I put an inordinate amount of effort into trying to get all the stuff out of the way so I can get to the “Ah Yes” moments. My self-speak rationale for this borderline obsessive behaviour is that I want to free my mind to enjoy those exquisite moments unencumbered.
The problem is I sometimes get too caught up in the stuff and simply run out of time. Many of the things that fall into the stuff category are never really done. They are repetitive tasks that simply move to the bottom of my “To Do” list once they’re completed and proceed to inexorably move back up the list again.
Often I have a specific day mapped out in my mind as the “me day”. It’s the day I plan to devote entirely to things that make me happy and recharge my psychic battery. But life or happenstance has a way of sabotaging that strategy. The day arrives and something pops up that demands my attention or knocks my plans off the rails. I feel quite self-righteously put out when that happens.
More and more I see the importance of living in the moment or, at a minimum, living in the day. There is no guarantee what tomorrow will bring. In the grand scheme of things, today is all we really can be sure about. Equally undeniable is the fact that the stuff will keep on accumulating no matter how diligent we are in getting it done.
The “Ah yes!” moments are equivalent to metaphors for me. They are the all too brief epiphanies when life – and the world in which we live – reveals its essence to me. I’ve fallen into a habit of living for the moments of metaphor.
But as I was standing by the lake last evening, casting my lure again and again into the water waiting for that ecstatic tug on the line, it occurred to me that just being there was golden in and of itself.
The sun shimmering off the water in a thousand points of light … Dragonflies zigzagging about in reckless abandon… Swallows rejoicing in the joy of flight… The bullfrog chorus that never ends… The wind kissing the lake in gentle ripples… All these things are enduring metaphors that I miss if I live only for the “Ah Yes” moments.
I’m going to try and enjoy the long arching flight of the lure through the air, before it hits the water, as much as I enjoy the tug on the line. It won’t be easy. But I’m pretty damn sure I’ll be happier – and healthier – if I can.
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.
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Tags: epiphany · fishing · lake · live in the moment · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetNo Comments