10/11/19 Journal

          This morning is my first day of break, since I don’t have Friday classes. I woke up today to find a sense of peace. I think this is mostly because my roommates have gone to Vegas along with the rest of the senior class. I think that since I am an only child that having the house to myself with no distractions is a good thing once in a while. Although I would like to go to Vegas, I just can’t justify it at the moment. I want to go to Vegas when I have enough money to enjoy it, and that’s not the case at this point in time. I have decided to stay back, catch up on some work, stay on my training schedule, and maybe do some fly fishing if the weather permits. I went to bed last night with the storm hitting

and I woke up this morning to find that it is still raining outside. I decided to get a closer look and stepped outside only to be met by a bitter, wet morning. It was 44 degrees. It hit me that this was the coldest I have been since about February of this year. I felt a sort of energy come into my body by the mild temperatures. Most people in Texas find it unpleasant, but for me the temperature holds much more meaning. Cold weather means duck hunting and fly fishing season is upon us. Fly fishing season is the opposite for those further north, but since Texas and Oklahoma are so warm the trout get quite lethargic in the summer. The colder weather means that I owe myself a trip to Beaver’s Bend, Oklahoma, to try my hand at some finicky trout in the Lower Mountain Fork River. The trout there are not all wild, but it is the closest thing I can get to the West and is only about a three and a half hour drive from DFW.

            Thinking of fly fishing this morning made me think of my favorite life and outdoor film, A River Runs Through It. One of my favorite quotes from the book turned film is, “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.” I have always been able to relate to this quote because of how I was raised. I have always called myself a Christian, however, I was not raised going to church every Sunday. My dad and I often spent the weekends outdoors, fishing or hunting in East Texas among the tall pine trees. Although it wasn’t church, it was beautiful country. I think this exposure is what led me to find God in nature and not to only to acknowledge his worship inside a church. Perhaps the most known quote from the movie is, “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.” I love to relate this quote to life. I think we can all get caught up in certain areas of our life and overlook the fact that everything we do and feel is interrelated. I like to think that the river is life, and all the things we do converge to make a path for our life.