“There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind.” – Washington Irving
I spent some time fishing with my boys yesterday and and it occurred to me that fishing is calming to the mind, if you are willing to give yourself over to the process. I suppose that is true of any activity, but in the case of fishing it seems that it is just as easy to succumb to the frustration or boredom of not catching anything as it is to let your mind be calmed, whether or not the fish are biting. As Steven Wright once quipped: “There is a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.”
It really matters little what happens to you. What matters most is how you handle what happens.
Gregory Hake 
I appreciate your words. Fishing can serve as a metaphor for life experiences. Recently I had an occasion of being invited and attending a real “southern gospel” church service. Little did I know it would be three hours long! When the element of “when is this going to end” came up I realized in that moment the necessity of going with the flow. As I relaxed into the flow I found a great spiritual peace and appreciation for the people I was with. Thanks for sharing your fishing awareness it does serve to apply to best handling what occurs in our living.
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I love to fish, fresh water or ocean, it’s a wonderful experience!
Our own personal choices aside, just sharing the world with 6 or 7 billion other people certainly adds to the randomness of what can happen to us. But how we handle it, specifically in our heart and thoughts is completely under our control. Physical stamina can never measure up to spiritual fortitude. Learning how to rise up in consciousness and stay there, no matter what comes, is the only way to live above the fray.
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When one goes fishing, one needs to learn that when the fish are not biting, one can very easily change one’s objective to simply becoming one with what surrounds you. Myself, I especially love to pet the rocks. Doesn’t fishing so often become a small reflection of Life? How we fish to how we live? There was one that was known as “the Great Fisherman”, but I don’t think that he ever caught a fish.
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