Gone Fishing

I don't care if it rains or freezes
I am safe in the arms of Jesus.
I am Jesus' little man
Yes, by Jesus Christ I am.
- Recited by Sage, Bill Litwaitis
- Miss Bruce, 1930s
Teacher, Holy Redeemer School, Detroit

At a resale shop next to Bark of the Town dog grooming, Bill was rocking in a chair when we welcomed each other by name. A bit shy at first about singing those words, he opened up and
shared the gem from his instructor decades ago when his parents, the primary educators, sent him off to school. Today, he must be 80 and awesome as he smiles and conversed with me the other day as two-year-old pristine white Bichon Frise's, Woof and Wolf, the other eight feet in my home, went primping next door.

Gone fishing. Me also.

Off to Port Austin, Michigan's Thumb, tomorrow.

Along M-25, the coastline of multiple Lakes in Michigan, it is a two-lane highway steering its way from metropolitan Detroit up into this beautiful plush and pastoral land filled with resorters already for Labor Day, I'm sure.

Fishing is also a metaphor for time away casting cares on the sea. It's about listening to the Lord of life and love.

Fishing I will, trusting in the Lord (Proverbs 3:5).

With calm endurance, patience, the lack of which will make a patient of all of us, slowly and attentively I will Jeep my way into this slower, calmer community of Bad Axe into Port Austin, and more, where my dad's root reside, and my brother, Bob, now retired from Chrysler's many years, lives.

Clearly, The Creator is good to those who wait on God, and, to the soul seeking the Maker, the powerful book of Lamentations, (of lamenting of so much depressing sadness, like the 9/11/01 horror's fear that frustrates and fills so many with fear still a decade later), told in Lamentations, 3:25.

A pause to ponder.

That's this holy day before the break of Labor Day, and, summer's unofficial ending for youngsters, especially, who have headed back to school already.

Gone fishing.

Thank God for this routine that sees us work, wait, watch and pause before the frenetic American lifestyle pushes into high gear in September.

But, before that, I hope you get to pause, ponder, and, even go fishing, friend!