Last year was a good one for fishing. It brought more opportunities for trips for some reason, perhaps commitment. Whatever it was, one trip in particular provided me an epiphany. It was a three day camping trip in late August with my much younger fishing buddy, Ed.
At 56 years old, camping ain’t what it used to be. The blow up camping pad is quite a bit thicker now. Getting in and out of a tent isn’t as easy, and the number of times you get up in the middle of the night only seems to increase the older I get. To add to that, rain was the main dish on the weather menu for most of the weekend. All those little things start to add up and make you wonder, “Is it really worth all the effort?”
Our first day found us way up a four wheel drive road, back in the deep woods. We wanted to venture far, get away from people, and dedicate ourselves to bushwhacking a stream in the hopes of catching some brook trout.
As it steadily drizzled on us for most of the day, I watched Ed move up and over huge boulders and fallen trees, around and through soggy bushes and plants, like they weren’t even there. His youthful agility is something to behold. He moves without fear or reservation, at least that’s how it looks.
That’s when it struck me…the epiphany! He moves and navigates the difficult terrain of a river and its banks like I used to…20 years ago. It was like I was watching myself and what I must have looked like when I was his age. I was like that once upon a time. That was the cool part, to see myself in him.
I’m still able to move quite well out on the water, but I worked a lot harder that weekend to keep up with Ed. I noticed I had quite a few more breaks of sitting down on a good rock, while watching him fish. I noticed the distance I had to cover just to catch up with him got farther and farther as the day got longer. I noticed my tired knees and throbbing feet more than I ever had. And he just kept going, seemingly only stopping because I needed to.
Limitations aren’t easy, but they do help you realize the boundaries you need to learn and grow.
Embrace your limitations, whatever they may be. I believe in the importance of learning my limitations and continuing to push them. It is what keeps me growing, challenging, and understanding myself. I believe in surrounding myself with like minded people who feel similarly, as they play a vital role in my limitation discovery.
I am grateful for having a younger fishing buddy, to help me understand my limitations. And it brings me incredible joy to watch him on the water, never letting me forget my youthful days. I am grateful to have someone with such a sense of adventure, so I can have new experiences…even with my limitations.
#thisisaboutfishing #thisisnotaboutfishing
