Funny it is - to live my entire young life looking out over the bluff and then later to find an intramural softball umpire who was also a bluff dweller. It was a match made in heaven. He spent his summers on a bluff in Alaska, fishing below with his entire extended family. I was quick to snatch up and reel in this fisherman and make him my husband.
It felt like home when I first visited the Alaskan bluff - very similar to my native one yet the view was a bit different. While I grew up overseeing the beautiful Boise valley and river below, this bluff was the front row seating of scenes I'd never seen before.
Cook Inlet it's called, with bald eagles flying overhead, indescribable backdrop of Mt. Redoubt, beautiful spacious skies, purple mountain majesties...it's everything the song describes about America!
Since I married this bluff dweller fisherman, I had to learn the ropes of being a commercial set-netter. This type of thing was new to me, but it did help that I had some previous tractor experience. It was an adjustment at first, a stretch at most, and after nineteen years, I have just as many memories of this bluff now. Moments that have shaped me.
Brent's grandpa, Wendell, always said fishing was a gamble, and he was sure right. But that doesn't stop us from coming up to Alaska even with the odds against us cause it's much more than fishing around this bluff.
Fishing is what brings families together.
It's about learning the family trade and being a valuable contributor to the team. Just by working side-by-side you learn things about your grandparents and aunts and uncles you never knew before. You hear their stories while sitting for hours at the net racks. A priceless gift of your own history.
It's about enjoying the unexpected surprises...like the swoop of a Bald Eagle grabbing a snack for the day or a Moose sighting with her baby... It's a time to stop and watch life take place in front of you.
It's about nestling up in Grandma's lap...
It's about having plenty of time for a competitive game of cards with Grandpa...
(Isn't there a heavenly light that shines over your grandpa?)
It's about working together as a family....
And treating yourself to fine dining...
It's about running to Tesoro for dessert. It's celebrating just to have an excuse to gather up the family and eat more dessert. It's about capturing a photo of a great catch...(my catch is the photo bomber)
It's the joy of watching our children explore the world, get dirty, use their imaginations, play barefoot all day long, pick flowers, and hunt for valuable Agates on the beach because that's what great grandma Mamoo did!
Alaska is about unwinding, taking deep breaths, sorting through thoughts, absorbing small ordinary moments usually unseen in the hustle and bustle. I come to find healing and rest for myself, to let my heart honestly feel the array of emotions I've hidden inside. They are free here. I don't have to keep stuffing them and trudge on. I have nowhere to go. It is safe for me to let go of them, handing them back to God as an offering and allowing Him to teach me valuable lessons through them.
My hope is that I'm a good student. There are lessons I really want to get this time, once and for all. Some lessons are repeated ones cuz I can't seem to get over myself and into God's hands. It will be hard work, but I'm ripe and ready this time.
Alaska couldn't come at a better time.
I'm not just a country girl from Idaho, but I'm an Alaskan set-netter now. And one thing I know about fishing is....when the "run" is here and you have more fish than you think you can pick and your fingers are swollen and you think your back is going to give out any minute, you dig deep and keep on picking, knowing the reward is greater than the aches and pain of the work being done. It's the struggle and heartache and work that gives it such worth.
Here's to fishing and all that fishing brings this season!
No comments:
Post a Comment