The following story is a condensed version of a chapter in my latest book. The tale involves fishing, but is really about the challenges we face each day to find time to enjoy the things we love.
The phone rang in the outer office, but I knew that my secretary would get the call. I’d already told her that I wasn’t taking any calls, but she called out “It’s Life”, more than loud enough for me, and most of the neighbors, to hear it.
“No calls! I’m too busy thinking
about my fishing trip on Friday.”
“Life said to tell you
that he knows you’re here, so you’re going to have to pick up. He won’t take no
for an answer. He said that this is about the fiftieth time that you were
supposedly going fishing, but every other time he’s won out, and you’ve stayed in
the office to deal with him.”
“This time it’s for real. I’m
going to put aside my work, and actually go fishing. Tell him I’m going to
experience what a ‘Fun Life’ can be!”
“Sorry, Boss, but he said to tell
you that he’s on the way over here; he should be arriving shortly, and you know
that it never takes him long to get here.” She was right. Life came and went as he
pleased around here. I couldn’t shake him, no matter how hard I tried.
Fishing was something Life
and I used to do a lot of. We had explored the streams, rivers, lakes and
oceans of Massachusetts for my first forty years, and then I had moved to
Florida in 1995, where we learned that fishing was quite different here.
We had a lot of new experiences to
savor. The flats of the Indian River Lagoon became our playground, and we
actually lived in a cottage on its shores for a time. Fresh fish became a
staple for us, and good friends joined us to share in the fun. Life
back then was very good!
But, as we all know, eventually Life’s
other priorities catch up with us. Work, relationships, and kids demand more
attention than we’d sometimes like to give them, but that’s just the way it is,
right? But, back to the story; Life did indeed show up on schedule,
and I did get my work done. Here’s the fun part.
At 4:30 Friday morning I woke up
from a dream that I was having about fighting a very large fish. The fish was
just about pulling me off the deck of the boat that I was on! One final splash
at the side of the boat, and the fish was gone. The splash must have hit me in
the face, because I woke up and jumped out of bed, ready to go. Grabbing a thermos
of coffee, I drove to the marina to meet my friend Bill Carter, and Capt. Mark
Dravo, our guide for the day.
Capt. Mark had gone out earlier to
cast net our bait, and the live wells were full of nice threadfins. We started
fishing in some shallows not far from the marina, but within ten minutes, Mark realized
that our bait was dying in the wells because the water temperature had gotten
too high. We got out of there right away, but we ended up losing 40-50 nice
baits.
Armed with the remaining bait, Mark
took us to a new spot, where we started throwing the threadfins into an area
that was being torn up by fish in every direction. For almost an hour we got
slammed by some very aggressive fish; it seemed that every bait we tossed out was
getting popped, and we were landing every other one that hit our offerings. It
was “Fish Heaven,” and we couldn’t
have been happier!
And then we ran out of baits. Monster bummer! As the fish boiled the
water all around us, we watched in awe. We threw artificial baits at them, but
they were only feeding on live bait, and nothing else could even get a sniff.
So, with no bait, we decided we’d have to come back another day to try this
spot again.
We were standing back on the dock before
nine, even though we thought when we had pulled out three hours before that
we’d be out on the water until noon. It
was hard to be disappointed though; we had more fun in that one hour than most
of us see on an all day excursion. It had been worth the time and effort to
make this happen.
We all stood around, talking about
our amazing little adventure, and how much we enjoyed it.
We talked about doing this more often, but as we did, I heard a familiar voice
calling to me from my truck. It was Life, telling me not to make any
plans; it was time to go back to work!
Does Life do this to you, too? We all need to find the time to enjoy the things we love, no matter what they are. Life is too short! Enjoy!
And this, from our old friend Groucho Marx:
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
Mark T. Bradbury, Author
For information on my eBook, Serpent's Curse, please follow the link:
For those of you who would like to try the first seven chapters of my book "Serpent's Curse," please click on the link below:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1456c9f6ce6cc2b2
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1456c9f6ce6cc2b2
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