Enlightenment and a Good Fly Fishing Book.

I read a passage recently in John Gierach’s No Shortage of Good Days that hit me pretty hard. He spent an entire chapter talking about the his methods of fly fishing and how they would have been considered "cheating" to some of the more traditional fly fishers of the time. He then related the cheating he was doing to the idea of the counterculture movement of the 1960's and 70's.

He said that “many of us had taken up fly fishing not so much as a sport, but as a possible path to enlightenment, and as everyone knows, those routes aren’t the same for everyone.”

It dawned on me upon reading that passage that fly fishing was and still is my enlightenment. It has changed my perspective of the world around me. It has taught me to slow down and to be observant. It has taught me that we can achieve success in a multitude of different ways, and not everyone has the same idea of what success is.

But as I have said previously, different strokes for different folks. I’m not going to sit behind my computer screen and tell you fly fishing will open your mind up to new ways of thinking and doing things. But that is what fly fishing did for me. And I have discovered this about being enlightened, it comes when you aren’t looking for it. I didn't start fly fishing to become enlightened, I started fly fishing as a hobby. Then I slowly became engrossed in this hobby, and discovered my passion.

If you’d like to read great fly fishing stories I highly suggest reading one of Gierachs books. I cannot guarantee that you will have such an epiphany about life as I did, but he is an excellent writer.

Good Luck and Tight Lines, 
Josh