Gifts of Growing Up <3

This weekend I had the opportunity to take a friend fishing that had never really gone before. My Dad has been fishing since he was old enough to fish and he has been taking me since I was old enough to. I remember a lot of times being on the water but today I realized how much I hadn't remembered.

Dad set my friend up with a sinker (weight) on the end of a line and instructed him how to overhand cast first and then side cast. How to hold the pole, grab the line with your finger, open the bail, take the rod back, and cast. When you cast watching how and when you release. I watched them practice a few times, the sinker sailing down the paved road at the camp ground. I even took a few turns at it myself. I realized that I had probably learned how to cast the same way a long time ago. Standing on the paved road at a campground, learning how to get a bait to sail as far as possible. Making sure I didn't send it straight down and not arcing the line so high that it gets caught in the trees. These were foundational skills I didn't even remember learning. Skills that I had learned about fishing a long time ago. I go out on the river or lake now and seem to naturally know how to send my bait where I want it.

When we got out onto the water, I could explain the different lures and what fish they were most likely to attract. I was able to share the different rhythms of how you reeled in different lures. Even how to get a fish in the boat or hold it once you got it in. Dad would explain different things as well and offer coaching as he observed my friend fishing. It made me so happy and grateful of how much I got to see being taught because it showed me how much I had learned. How many lessons I had probably cataloged time and time again. Not really remembering how I knew it but knowing that I still had the information. And I was able to share that with my friend. <3 Really special <3

My appreciation and gratitude for that moment was huge. For my Dad to take the time over my lifetime to walk us through those same steps. Teaching us how to cast, learning to set the hook, learning how to put a worm on a hook, how to get the hooks out, how to clean a fish, and the hundred other things to pay attention to. All of those things that I can do almost automatically now without even knowing when I learned it. It made me grateful to think about my nephew that is going to grow up learning from My Dad and from his Dad. <3 How one day, he will get to experience what I did today. Sharing his life with a friend and seeing how much he has learned <3 And knowing how many times poles might be broken or end up in the water, how many times hooks will get sunk into someone's skin, how many times lures might end up in trees, how many times fish might get off the line, how many times the boat will be rocked, and how many times the best fish stories will be told. <3

All the mistakes and lessons I have been loved through. All the snags my Dad still gets me out of. <3 And all the skills I am able to share because of the time people took to teach me. As much as I know, I am still learning. As much as he knows he is still learning. The skills instilled in us when we were too young to remember are precious. <3

This turned into a beautiful honoring of Father's day <3 It is also the realization that there is probably so much we know that we take for granted. The gifts that we have and what it took to get us there. How many mistakes we were allowed to make in the the process and how it has become second nature.

We don't remember all the lessons, we don't remember all the mistakes, yet somehow we still know what to do. That is pretty beautiful way to take on life whether it be old skills or new skills. Thanks to all the figures out there who take the time to share life with others, teach them new things and allow the mistakes <3 I may not remember how I know but I remember why I know. It was because I was taught <3 Thank you for teaching me <3