Reel it in!

I’d much rather be fishing right now, than shoveling snow. Standing on a green, grassy bank, a warm, soft breeze on my face, the babbling brook going by, the songs of birds in the trees. Instead, my trusty shovel and I are moving snow from one pile to another. Here’s a haiku I wrote for the occasion.

White crystalline flakes

Gently descending toward Earth

My shovel hates them

Shoveling snow is a great aerobic workout. I’ve decided to sell memberships to come shovel snow at my ranch. I’m calling it the “Gut-busting, Heart-pounding Workout.” Hey, a girl can dream.

Back to fishing. Toward the base of a fishing pole is the reel. It contains the line that you string up the pole to attach to your hook. You then cast the hook out into the water to catch the fish. While laying in bed this morning, at 3:30, I was casting out far and wide. But not for fish, (Silly, I was in bed) I was snagging worry. Boy oh boy, I was catching them right and left. I had a bunch of worry flopping around on the bank, demanding my attention. It was gut-busting and heart-wrenching all right! Then it came to me, I needed to reel it in.

My spiritual “fishing” license says I am to catch and release. If I hook a big worry, I am to reel it in, and then let it go! I am more that happy to tell the tale on how the big one got away! I cannot eat the amount of worrying I am catching, and it is not healthy for my waistline either.

Plus in casting my line out so far, it was hooking other worries and making my line too heavy to manage. So I visualized reeling the line in from the future (or the past) and got it back to the current moment. Right here and right now, because that is the moment I am actually living now.

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it is called the present.

I had to reel back, in my mind, to the exact second I was in and take a deep breath, and release all of the worry I snagged. I held onto the “life-line” in my reel, Jesus, and knew He would take care of it all!

I just had to relax into Him and trust.

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” (Matt. 6:34 [MSG])

So put on your waders, get your pole and let’s go catch and release our worries my friends! Life is too short not to stop and smell the babbling brook!