The Mindfulness Blog

My Dad used to love fly-fishing for trout, and he shared his passion with me and my son by taking us every now and then to his trout club near Sandusky, Ohio. It was a generational ritual that I came to love, myself (as did my son), and I think of those trips often.

After our first fishing session, we'd gather for lunch in an old tavern-like restaurant that had walls covered with fishing paraphernalia and mounted lunkers that members had caught in the past. One time, we were randomly seated at a corner table we had never sat at before, and as I scanned the nearby walls, I noticed a small plaque that was hung well above eye-level, near the ceiling. It read:

I come here often to find myself--
It is so easy to get lost in the world.

Suddenly, I got it-- I finally understood why my father was so fond of returning to his old fishing club and sharing it with my son and me. I looked at him, and he quietly smiled back at me-- then he looked away, never saying a word. It was just a moment, but it was a moment I'll never forget.

As I reflect on it now, it occurs to me that this blog has become a place I come to often, to find myself-- and that thought makes me smile. As a matter of fact, I'm smiling as I think about that moment and write this piece. And that's what it's really all about-- the smile. Whatever it is that causes the smile-- the "place", or the "thing"-- is pretty much irrelevant.

Maybe it's a smile we share with others. Maybe it's a smile we share with ourselves. Maybe it's both, and maybe it's neither. Maybe it's big, and maybe it's subtle. The important thing is that we can. That we do-- smile, that is!