Monk's Memoirs: Today Is The Present...Enjoy The Gift...

I always respond to my children and friends...when they complain or worry about something that has happened or might happen...that they should take these words to heart...the whole thing goes like this..."Yesterday is the past..you can't change it..Tomorrow is the future...you can't predict it...and Today is the present...so enjoy the Gift!!...I try to live by these words as much as I can...sometimes it is a very difficult credo to follow...we all fret and worry at times...but over all it has pulled me through some tough times...if you look hard enough you can always find something in each day that brings a smile to your face or softens the blow of a particularly tough moment in your life..to me each day truly is a gift...I usually don't have to look far to realize how lucky I am to have such a wonderful family and friends.. not to mention the gifts that God puts in front of us every day...

One of these special gifts from God happened just the other day...I was wading in Lemon Bay...the wind was whipping the waves into white caps..which is very unusual on the bay..so there were no boats in close to shore and no other fishermen braving the elements to pursue my finny friends...I caught a nice size Jack but in the process of retrieving my jig..which was a considerable way down his gullet...my prey expired...for the animal lovers out there..this doesn't happen often...I almost always release my catch or on occasion use it to feed myself or my friends when requested..anyway...I thought to myself when my opponent met his maker that it was a waste because the Jack is not a good fish to eat...I remembered that I had spotted a magnificent Bald Eagle ..perched in what I call "The Eagle Tree"..just a half hour or so before...I was now about three hundred yards from the tree and could not see if my friend was still there. .but I waved the fish high above my head a couple of times...whistled in my best "come and get it" tone... and threw it about fifteen feet away from me...I hoped that it would float and to my good fortune and the Eagles..it did...the Eagle was out of the tree in seconds and on his way...I have done this little act before with an Osprey that checks out the pier I fish on sometimes when I'm feeling lazy and don't want to get wet or drag the Kayak out...a wave of a fish and a whistle and the osprey would swoop down to the deck for a free meal...the Eagle swooped low over the fish..only a few feet from me as I stood perfectly still...he was afraid to make a stab at it because of the waves stirred up by the strong wind at my back...but after about a dozen magnificent passes at his potential lunch... he made a splash at it and missed...he then decided it was time for a break and perched himself on a branch just a few yards in front of me...since it was just he and I and there was no one to watch the crazy guy talking to the bird... I whistled and yelled up for him to not give up...and to try one more time...he swooped off the branch and came down one more time...after another half dozen attempts he finally had the fish lined up and snatched it from the whitecaps...I don't know who was happier...I whistled and shouted my congratulations as he flew back to the Eagle Tree to enjoy his meal....About ten minutes later I was amazed to see him and now his mate flying my way...I thought that they were perhaps on the hunt once more and wondered how they could have eaten that fish so fast...the pair came directly over my head and as they got above me their forward progress stopped and in the strong wind they hovered no more than twenty feet above me for ten or fifteen seconds...I whistled up at them and they gracefully turned and flew back in the direction of the tree...it was as if they both came out to say "thanks for the fish"..because I finally realized that the prize catch probably went to feed their youngsters back in the nest...now I'm not naive enough to think that was the reason..but it sure was an event that truly was a gift from God on an otherwise pretty miserable fishing day...

By the way...the Eagle in the picture is another gift from my maker...I am fortunate enough to have another "Eagle Tree" right outside my door...I can open my door and look straight up to the branches most used by them...each time I see one one which is several times a week I'm in awe of the regal beauty that these birds of prey possess...even this youngster has that regal beauty..you can tell by the lightness of his feathers..they don't turn black for a year or so...can you believe that Ben Franklin wanted the Turkey to be our national bird...What was he thinking?..

I've got a lot of stuff to catch up on...but I'll do that in the next installment...I wanted to share my Eagle story with you before I catch up on all that has happened in the last month...

A couple of my friends have asked why I took out the word "Fish" from my sign off and inserted the word "Dance"...here's why...I found this little saying at the VA on my last visit and I thought that it too is something people ought to take to heart..."Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass...Life is learning how to Dance in the Rain".....