Letting go of your mistakes: Be the fish not the turtle

It was a fantastic afternoon spent on the lake fishing in a local park. Sometimes you get the most beautiful life insights doing the simplest of things. Yesterday that was during a scenic day of fishing with the kids.

After the initial hustle and bustle of helping six kids bait and cast out, I got some time to cast out on my own and just sit in silence for a few minutes. As I took in the scenery my mind started to wonder. What a feeling that is... no thoughts, just being there.

All of sudden we started getting some action on multiple lines and into action I went. The pull out, the picture, the hook removal and the letting the fish go was routine now. The kid's faces and focused attention on what was going on were something to see but what really caught my attention were the fish.

I noticed how every time I came upon the hooked fish and went to hold its body in preparation for hook removal how the fish seem to completely calm down in anticipation of the hook removal. Every time, the fish was fighting the hook until I touched it, as though it finally realized that in order for it to live it would have to stop fighting, and allow me to remove the hook.

I found it so interesting that a fish could make a mistake, get hooked and sense that its best interest is to let go instead of fight, so quickly. When we humans make a mistake, we get "hooked" and fight that hook for ages if need be, just to be right. Because the fish were so willing to let go so quickly they tended to get through the hooking ordeal generally unscathed.

On the other hand, the turtle acted more like a human. Unfortunately, from time to time a turtle will attempt to eat your bait underwater and get hooked. A turtle is one tough customer as it generally refuses to get help for a longer period of time. It will fight you, possibly making the hooking incident even worse. Sometimes leaving you no choice but to cut the line as short as possible and allowing the hook to dissolve on its own on the turtle so that it may live. The turtle reminds me of us humans, fighting tooth in nail against the very thing that could set us free.

Be the like the fish, not the turtle and let go of the "hooks" in your life.