Come Up Out of There

There’s Life Waiting on the Shore

Most of my stories come from my dad, who loved to fish. He’s actually where I get my love for storytelling. One day we were on the river early as usual, it was a little foggy out that day, so my dad was pretty hopeful we were going to have a good day. Sure, enough as we approached the dam my pops excitement grew watching the water dance ferociously right in the mouth of the dam.

He set up shop!

We’re going to fish the bottom today Kenny he said as if he knew what was waiting for him down there. He lined up like I don’t know how many fishing poles along the bank but there were a bunch, I can tell he meant business for sure. Before long he was popping them out the water almost at will it seemed like, one bite after another. Channel cat, drum, blues, gar, all of that, he was yanking them out one by one.

Now, I’m out there fishing but really, I was there for moral support and to tend to the fish he already caught …you know, working the net, keeping the string of fish secure, making sure it doesn’t break loose and float away.

While I was doing my job I hear…Get’m Kenny in the distance. I look up as my dad was in a battle with what looked like a monster and another one of his poles is bowed like no other “…get’m Kenny, it’s a big one…”. So I rush over (I was 10 at the time) and set the hook and the battle was on.

“You gotta get’m Kenny, he’s going to drown”

I remember thinking with a slight chuckle, “here we go …a fish can’t drown in the water pops”. Again he yelled, “save’m Kenny, don’t let’m drown”. The terrible irony of saving that fish from drowning is baptizing it in that hot grease later after pops taught me how to fillet a fish for the first time.

But, I tell that story because I sat in silence one morning listening and searching for the voice of God, it finally came to me and said…

“We’re drowning…

”We’re drowning in our own pain, hurt, regret, lack, trauma, hatred, misery and the list can go on. Our turmoil is engulfed in a raging river …and the fog is keeping us from seeing a clear path out. We have lost trust in one another for nothing other than having differing viewpoints and perspectives on the world, our lack of identity tortures us to no end.

But there’s a force, a spirit, a wave, a metaphoric hook, that’s pulling us to shore, pulling us to a deeper understanding, showing us the way out, but we resist because it’s painful and there is a lot of uncertainty, we find comfort in the water no matter how high it rises, we just ride the current.

Current events, current trends, current beefs and drama until it all totally consumes us and we drown!