An Old Man And The Sea

“Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

I have to admit, that I have never considered not being a fisherman, and as Ernie said, "that was the thing that I was born for." Nothing replaces time spent on the water. This morning, I read the Hemingway quote and it made me think of all the wonderful antidotes and sayings about fishermen, so I thought I would beg the reader's indulgence and share a few.

May the holes in your net be no larger than the fish in it. ~Irish Blessing
There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind. ~Washington Irving

If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles. ~Doug Larson
I love fishing. You put that line in the water and you don't know what's on the other end. Your imagination is under there. ~Robert Altman

 Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn. ~Chuck Clark

You cannot catch trout with dry breeches. ~Spanish Proverb

Scholars have long known that fishing eventually turns men into philosophers. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to buy decent tackle on a philosopher's salary. ~Patrick F. McManus

Men and fish are alike. They both get into trouble when they open their mouths. ~Author Unknown
There will be days when the fishing is better than one's most optimistic forecast, others when it is far worse. Either is a gain over just staying home. ~Roderick Haig-Brown, Fisherman's Spring, 1951

These are just a few of my favorites, and the list could go on and on. Most anyone who knows me, knows of my love of the water. Be it a river, a lake, a swamp, or my beloved ocean, I hope to never be far from it for very long.  
Yesterday the sea was calm and the sky was blue, and it was a beautiful soul restoring day on the sea, and in the backwaters. The sea teaches you something every time you venture forth upon it's waters, and yesterday afternoon was no exception. A crack of thunder and a far bolt of lightning signaled that it was the appropriate time for our return to the hill. Only one thing stood between us and the truck, and I will show you that in the following picture.

Yep, behind that wall of rain is the boat ramp. Nothing like a cool, stinging rain squall to go through on the way in. Lesson? Well in retrospect maybe we stayed out fifteen minutes too long, maybe we should have stayed put and let the squall pass. Don't know, because neither of those things is what we chose, instead we pushed right through the chop, and the stinging rain and made it safely in.

One of the keepsakes that reside upon my desk is an antique paper weight that Belinda gave to me years ago before one of my long deployments. It contains in cased in glass an Old Breton Fisherman's Prayer, that goes like this: "Dear God be good to me; The sea is so wide, And my boat is so small." Most likely my favorite fishing quote, and one that I leave you to ponder.

Old Captain Sends.