I woke up this morning at 4:30 instead of my usual 5:00.
I’m not sure why a half hour would make such a difference, but it felt really early.
When I looked at the clock, I thought it was like I was going fishing.
For a minute, I thought I was going to miss all the fish I wasn’t even trying to catch. I thought I was going to miss something.
I remember when we used to go fishing…up so early to get on the lake and catch the fish before they knew we were after them or something.
That was what you did when you went fishing…you got up early.
Back then, I was the one my father had to wake up.
“Wake up…time to wake up” and I’d get up and have some breakfast and then we’d get in the station wagon and drive to the lake.
Now I’d be the one doing the waking up…but for some reason we don’t go fishing. Maybe it’s something I should start doing.
My children can wake up early, too.
Fishing is a good reason to wake up.
Yesterday when I was just starting out on the mail route, I looked up to a porch I never deliver to and noticed an older man in overalls staring out into the fog.
Fog is pretty atmospheric.
( “fog is pretty atmospheric” ? Very true, Sherlock, very true.)
I’d seen him pulling weeds out in his garden before…but never noticed him up on his porch.
“I wonder what he’s doing up there?” I wondered.
( I’ve stopped listening to the radio when I deliver the mail. “Wondering” must be what I replaced the external noise with…I seem to be full of wonder these days.)
I finally arrived at the conclusion that he must be watching time.
( Have you ever noticed that when we say “finally arrived at the conclusion” we never let it be the end of the thought? Here we are at the “conclusion” and we can’t give it a rest. Maybe finally arrived at the diversion….or “you know I’ll keep talking”…or something like that would be more appropriate. )
Watching time? Like waiting for the fish to rise….
What better use of our time than just letting it wash over us some…times?
I don’t know what he was doing up on the porch in his bib overalls. Maybe he was balancing his stock portfolio or setting up a big company merger somewhere in Bolivia…I don’t really know. He might have been doing something really involved.
It looked to me like he was “just” watching time.
You know….maybe fishing is just a good excuse for us to watch time? Staring at that line going down into the water legitimizes it all.
When someone says…even if it should be obvious….”Whatcha doin’ ?” and we’re able to tell them that we’re fishing, it sounds better somehow than if we say that we’re just staring into space.
“Watching time” isn’t an answer that inspires the same understanding or confidence that “trying to catch some fish” does.
Like the old Rolling Stones song says…”tiiiiiiiiiiiime is on my my side…yes, it is”.
We should be able to watch it if we want to.