{"id":2154,"date":"2024-03-08T04:23:28","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T04:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/debsnewagain.com\/?p=2154"},"modified":"2024-03-08T04:23:29","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T04:23:29","slug":"sunshine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debsnewagain.com\/?p=2154","title":{"rendered":"Sunshine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A lot happens in a lifetime and you never know for sure how it\u2019s gonna turn out. It\u2019s a mystery and an adventure. There\u2019s living and dying and all sorts of drama in-between. I\u2019ve been on this fishing trip forever. Ha, I meant to say, I\u2019ve been alive forever. Maybe I\u2019ve been alive too long. I\u2019m sunburned and melting in this heat. I\u2019m hungry, thirsty and just plain tired. I\u2019d lay myself down right now if it wasn\u2019t so dang hot in this boat. I\u2019d like to jump in <\/a>the lake and cool off but I\u2019d wet the truck seat on the way home and I\u2019m too tired to be wearing soggy pants. What the heck am I talking about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the morning sun cuts through the trees and your windshield, it strikes your eyes and makes them try to close again but you can\u2019t let that happen so you force them open and look down at the shadows on the road. Then you steal a glance through the trees and the safety chains on the boat trailer jangle as your tires bounce out of a pothole. You check the rear view image of your bass boat, the one that you\u2019ve owned for a thousand fishing trips, at least and you wonder what you\u2019d ever do without it. You pick up your coffee cup and sip while the day takes shape in front of you and you know for sure that you are exactly where you should be. That\u2019s when the magic happens, that\u2019s when your tail catches the breeze and suddenly you\u2019re light as a feather. It\u2019s that moment that I find myself searching for, anticipating. It\u2019s a moment of astonishment and you\u2019re left, after your flight, in awe and you\u2019re dumbstruck by the experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a bad day, it\u2019s as good as it gets and on a good day it\u2019s just a hint of what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That moment of wonder reminds me of rolling in the grass with a puppy when I was a child. I\u2019m a child still and I try my best to return to that wonderland when I can. Sometimes wonderland is hard to find because full grown men have bills to pay and families and jobs to worry about. The boat needs a battery and the truck needs tires, my back hurts from yesterday’s job and for some reason I\u2019m filled with despair. And just like that, it happens. One by one my worries are brushed aside by the passing pines, the cool morning air and the new light that shines between the trees. Slowly it starts to happen and then faster until the sun shines right through to the heart of me and the crisp morning air fills my chest completely and for a few moments I\u2019m something else. I\u2019m a soul without bonds or boundaries and I sail on my own wings of wonder, for a moment or two. When I come down I don\u2019t come down completely. I\u2019m still higher than I was and I spend the rest of the day trying to rise up again and sometimes I do but sometimes it\u2019s all downhill from there. That\u2019s the reason they call it fishing and not catching. You never know for sure what\u2019s coming next. You push on and work and hope for a better time than you deserve. I always hope for more than I deserve and sometimes it comes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re fishing alone, it\u2019s good but if you\u2019re with a trusted friend it\u2019s all better. Life\u2019s also like that. A good friend is a great gift and I\u2019ve been blessed with many. Some were brothers or in-laws, uncles, cousins, nieces or nephews. I even had a sister who never rode in my boat, poor girl. My Grandfather started me out on this fishing journey. He resides now past the mountain peaks of this world and of my mind. He fishes with me when I\u2019m alone and therefore, I\u2019m never alone. It\u2019s funny when I think about it. He\u2019s my dearest friend even though he died around forty years ago. Now I remember fishing with him by reading the pages of my past. I brush off my memory dust and flip the printed pages of my mind\u2019s book and he\u2019s always there. He\u2019s always smiling. He teaches me what he can and entertains me with silly jokes. He was the first dear friend I lost and I hang on to him by reading my own mind. He\u2019s there and I\u2019m there beside him in his old aluminum boat and Grandmother is at home and she\u2019s preparing a meal for us. It\u2019s better than I deserve but my Grandfather deserves it and he\u2019ll share it with me. He always loves sharing her cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays I fish mostly in my own mind. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d do an honest to goodness fishing trip justice. The good fishing days, mostly they happened years ago and that\u2019s good enough for me. I\u2019d rather not do it at all than to do it badly. I learned what I could from Grandfather and I\u2019ve kept learning on every trip since then. I know how it should be done because I saw it done by better fishermen than me and I joined in. I\u2019d like to think I\u2019ve passed some of that knowledge along to others. It\u2019s no fun fishing with an idiot but an idiot is only an idiot until he learns how to fish. Then maybe he\u2019s still an idiot but at least he\u2019s smiling and there\u2019s a fish on his line and I\u2019m smiling also, in my memory. Then every once in a while an idiot will best me and laugh out loud and I\u2019ll smirk and learn what I can from him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My life has been a heck of a trip and occasionally I find myself rolling in the grass again, with that puppy. Sometimes my eyes are closed. Sometimes I\u2019m fishing. Be quiet if I\u2019m smiling. Leave me be. I\u2019m somewhere you\u2019ve probably never been. I\u2019m learning how to fish or I\u2019m teaching someone else. Watch for it. You might notice a glow when my chest fills to the brim with Sunshine. Maybe it\u2019s love I\u2019m brimming with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A lot happens in a lifetime and you never know for sure how it\u2019s gonna turn out. It\u2019s a mystery and an adventure. There\u2019s living and dying and all sorts of drama in-between. I\u2019ve been on this fishing trip <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debsnewagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debsnewagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debsnewagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debsnewagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debsnewagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/debsnewagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2157,"href":"https:\/\/debsnewagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions\/2157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debsnewagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debsnewagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debsnewagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debsnewagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}