Monday, August 11, 2008

Everything Happens for a Reason.....

....at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Health, life, love, happiness, finance....I'd like to think that everything that comes along and how we react is meant to be for the best in the long term, but sometimes I think that takes a lot of faith, since it's awfully hard to understand or reason some of the challenges in the immediate moment.

My mom is having a relatively major surgery on Wednesday and will enter the hospital tomorrow in preparation. It's going to be a difficult recovery time for both her and my dad, but hopefully it will reap long term benefit as planned. I hope everyone will keep both of my parents in their thoughts in the near future.

Our friend and fishing partner, "Little Ricky from Little Rock," just headed home today after ten days of fishing. When he arrived, he'd told us that he almost didn't make the trip because his bride had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. They have important meetings with doctors this week, and are thoughts are with them as well, as we wish her a successful recovery in her battle to come.

During Rick's stay, Craig received an e-mail from a fly shop telling him that Ross Reel Co. was issuing a commemorative reel, with all of the proceeds going to the fight against breast cancer. Why it came this week is beyond us, but obviously with the news we'd heard from Rick on his arrival, it seemed the only thing to do was order the reel.

Craig had it shipped express and presented him the reel at dinner on Friday night. We took some photos of it on Sunday morning, and then Rick fished it on Sunday and caught a fish from a hole that had been tormenting him for a couple of days during the week. It wasn't the largest fish we'd seen from that hole all week, but it was certainly a great conclusion to some unfinished business for Rick, and a great hole to catch his first fish on the new reel.







I caught a few nice fish that day as well, including catching a fish where we'd seen numerous rises each time that we'd passed a pool in the exact same spot, but hadn't successfully caught the fish until that day.



All in all, it was a rewarding way to end a good week of fishing, with a feeling of accomplishment and exceptional company. Even the clouds gave us a wry smile of approval as we headed back to the lodge.



Last night we were invited to a fish fry at some of Sid and Sherri's friends in town, and it was phenomenal, fresh greens and vegetables from their garden to start, fried walleye and perch that was recently caught in a local lake, and of course an adult beverage or two. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping we might be invited back for one more before we go.

My house closed today, which I guess officially ends a chapter in my life. I guess once the summer finishes, I'll just have to see where the wind takes me. The day in general was pretty lazy though, as Craig and Sid took Rick to the airport very early in the morning, and with some more rain last night, we decided today might be a good day to take a day off of fishing. Considering I've probably never fished more than 15 days in a year, I guess I'll just have to make do with having fished probably 28 of the last thirty.

Something tells me we may get back to it tomorrow, at least for a few hours.

Good luck, Mom. I love you.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

glglglgl!