Father's Day is approaching, and I've been thinking about Dad. He's been gone now for several years. To say that he was an avid fisherman would be an understatement. It didn't matter what time of year it was, he was fishing. In winter, often in the early morning darkness, he fished, hunched on a little stool, his line in the hole he'd chopped through the ice. Sometimes he went down to Florida for deep sea fishing. Being out in a boat on a northern lake brought him a sense of peace that was very special to him, and he took every possible opportunity to do so. He was a guy's guy who went with his buddies on weekend camping and fishing trips and, when I was old enough, about eight, he started to take me too. We'd head up to Lake Muskoka, just he and I. We would stay in some lakeside cabin and head out first thing in the morning, with our gear, in a rental boat.
We were fishing for perch, to me, one of the tastiest treats, dredged in flour to make them crisp, and eaten hot out of the frying pan. It didn't take long to realize that on this day that the perch were biting like crazy. No sooner had we cast our lines in the water than we'd get a bite. I was so excited by our success and the increasing numbers of fish in the boat. "Daddy, look! I've caught another one!" I kept squealing at the top of my lungs in my little girl voice.
"Shhh!" said Dad. Sound really carries on open water. Soon a boat of fishermen appeared close by, then another and another until they were fishing all around us. Everyone was happy to find all this bounty. We went home with a hundred fish that day, but first there was a stop for wild blueberry pie and ice cream. Later, Dad loved to tell the story of how I managed to attract every fisherman on the lake to our great spot. What I remember best is the sunshine, the beauty of the day, Dad and I, just the two of us, happiness and, most of all, love.
I believe that the most important thing we are here to learn is love. All our decisions would have a better outcome if love were our driving force. It's not always easy to remember this, and sometimes I struggle to come back to this place of love, but it is always my goal. My belief in love has led me to gather fifty uplifting and inspiring stories about its many aspects that people have shared with me. These stories are in a book called "Heartbeats, True Stories of Love." It is available as a paperback and ebook on Amazon and Smashwords.
If you have your own uplifting story of love to share, I invite you to go to my Facebook page and post it there. There's never too much love to share. It would be wonderful to hear from you