Perspective or As We Say in My Family: Let's Go Fishing!

Yesterday, I have to tell you, I spent the good part of my afternoon very angry.  VERY ANGRY!  I let a comment really get under my skin, but I was so busy trying to get my part of a school Open House project done, pick up the girls, feed them, get Tink to her volleyball game and Bear to her soccer practice, and figure out where Tall Guy was in his silage project "down south" and if he could help bring someone home.  All the while, I was getting these steps checked off my list, I continued to fume and have angry conversations in my head with the person who set me off.

While I was sitting at soccer practice, my phone rang, and it was my father-in-law.  He wanted me to know he was sorry to hear about Deb.......DEB?  Quiet on my end......"Have you talked with your dad?"  "Nope."

Back story, my cousin Deb was very sick up in Minnesota where she and my folks had been fishing all last week.  She was in the hospital, and I knew she was ill..... now I knew she had passed away.....

Perspective......

Deb had been sick before she went up fishing, but this is what we do.  Our grandparents started the mecca to Minnesota way back in the day, and my Grandma Lyons was probably the happiest when she was in a boat with a pole in her hands.   Ok, the truck says Wisnconsin, but they also loved to go to Leach Lake in Minnesota.

As a little girl, my family made the trip up to Leach Lake and then on up to the arrowhead of MN on Moose Lake and on in to the Boundary Waters of Canada.

As a parent, I have tried to let the girls enjoy this family tradition.

Since my dad retired from teaching, he and Mom have been going back up to Minnesota, Lake Winnie or Lake Winnibigoshish to be specific, with a variety of family and friends, including my in-laws on many occasions.  My brother, my dad's brother, Uncle Dick, and his family are a big part of the party, and that includes his son Mike and daughter Deb and their families.  

This is where Deb wanted to go even though she was not feeling well, and she spent her last days fishing.

So we are back to the word perspective.  My anger is kind of gone, much less than it was, and in its place is a new sense of what is important each day and WHO is important.  Each day is a gift.  I have two friends battling cancer, and a silly e-mail does not even make it on their radar.  It's not worth the energy or the negativity I generated toward the innocent people around me.

God Bless you Deb.  You were a great mom, grandma, daughter, cousin, friend, nurse, and person.  You are now with your dad, Uncle Dick, Grandma and Grandpa, and many more aunts and uncles, and I imagine there is a huge family fishing trip at a heavenly fishing hole where the big ones never get away.

I'm leaving you with this song that used to open The Bill Dance Fishing Show.  Yes, I watched it faithfully with my daddy!  God Bless you too Jerry Reed