Fly Fishing BODY – MIND – SOUL Walking
“Everyone in my game comes to the same conclusion eventually, and that is they have to back off,” said Chrissy Hynde in a recent TV interview.
It’s pretty funny how a website like Texas Fly Caster built its own beast along the way, fueled only by the fact that a lot of people like to read what’s written here. That inspires a burning drive to do, to “show and tell” more about shared passions of fly fishing, music, entertainment and for many years consumption of fine beers and occasional cigars.
Well, obviously readers realize it is a time for this beast to back off a few things, and light a new fire under the things that might help us all live longer, stronger and healthier fly fishing lives on the water.
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Fortunately, my cancer battle had nothing to do with my consumption of beer (I did like the taste) and the occasional cigar. Doctors look at me and basically say I just caught a bad break, a cancer generated by a virus that has rampantly spread among my generation of males. That’s their best guess. I liken it to a bullet falling out of the sky at Brazil’s Carnival celebration – it just happened to hit ME.
Meanwhile, we arrive at a turning point in the lifelong fly fishing adventure. To go through what I will be going through the rest of this year, and not see an opportunity to change focus would (to me anyway) be an extremely hard lesson not learned.
Why continue to do so many of the same things that lead us to different diseases and shorter lives and painful treatments and ultimately … less fly fishing?
There are those among us who will never change of course, and that is certainly okay. And there are those among us who are way ahead of the game, and already realize that extremely healthy living results in adventures on an extremely high level. For us that adventure is still, at it’s core, fly fishing.
While I am sure a significant number of regular readers will likely chalk this change up to an “overreaction” to the current physical storm, let me assure you; we passed that “overreaction” point a long time ago. Now, it’s simply a reality check. Who of us wants their physical life to “unravel like a loose burrito in a backpack?” – Stephen Colbert
TODAY’S FLY FISHING BODY
Right now, as the pace is picking up for my treatments to begin this week, I finally have enough energy to get back to a basic exercise – walking. Walking is for those of us fortunate to do so, a greatly underestimated fly fishing exercise that leads to endurance on the water, greater balance and strength coming from Mother Earth up through the core of our bodies. Walking burns calories (which I am supposed to avoid right now), and gives me the ability to hike further away from the crowds, rock-hop rip-rap as much as five stories down and up – while fly fishing for hours at the rubicon of these fly fishing spots. Walking gives us the ability to go further and fly fish harder.
TODAY’S FLY FISHING MIND
Self motivation for something as boring as walking is hard to come by, quite honestly. And being pulled by our border collie can be more of a distraction than a rewarding experience. So right now, I like to walk and vary my pace, and think about the fact that I feel better now than I will in a few weeks, and maybe better than I feel for a few months. However, I want to be as prepared as I can for the slings and arrows coming my way, so I keep walking.
I am finding the new technology that allows me to monitor my exercise level, and sleep level to be a valuable technical component that keeps me essentially competing with myself. I wear a Fit-Bit Charge HR monitor on my wrist (all the time) and that synchs up with my phone for an extraordinarily detailed information – with the “HR” – for heart rate – being an extremely valuable component.
SOUL WALKING
If you already have a soulful component to your regular exercise walk, then you are steps ahead of the game. If not, there are obviously ways to get in touch with soulful walking. It could be plugging in and listening to new music. It could be silence, turning inside to listen to your breathing and feeling the muscles working their way into a new place.
For me, the vast majority of my walks start at my front door, and right now approach two miles. Where I find soul is in using my ability to observe nature as I walk, observe changes in the neighborhood, and just be in the moment of each step. And although my walks start and end at my front door, I always vary the route so as not to get too grooved on a single way home.
Yesterday’s walk included finding this bird nest on the street. I saw it, stopped walking and picked it up and put it on the grass beyond the street curb. What a piece of work a bird nest is, and to just let some Dodge dually turn it to dust seemed so wrong to me. I picked it up and brought it home on the return route. It reminds me of my fly fishing trips in the Colorado Rockies, where I almost always bring a small rock back to camp, even if I just leave it behind … it becomes hard evidence of a soulful journey left behind. After all, it is about the journey, the next journey, isn’t it?
Category: Culture on the Skids
