Mend the Line
Big Wood River, The Gem State | 2021 © Alicia Kae Miller
Frustrated by the humidity in Texas, I decided to head West to The Gem State to get a jump on celebrations with friends and family around our nation's birth.
For perspective, Idaho and I go way back.
When I was a child, our family would make the trek from Washington to visit loved ones who lived throughout the state. While much has changed since then, what has not changed is how the smell of conifers and immersion into ice-cold river water take me away to what Frank Costanza, played by Jerry Stiller in Seinfeld, coined, "Serenity Now."
The last time I was here, in January 2020, we spent the bulk of our time cross-country skiing (an old family favorite) that is both mentally and physically therapeutic. In contrast, during this visit, we biked along the Big Wood River in search of billy goats high atop the Sawtooth Mountains, went to the rodeo, and took time out to learn how to fly fish.
My guide was my Dad, Eric, an avid fisherman and patient teacher, who has taught me a great deal throughout my life, including my latest lesson on how to "mend the line." In layperson terms, mending the line is when you adjust your fly line, depending on the drag or, as I like to say, "mood" of the current, to the left or right.
As I clumsily practiced casting and line mending, I applied this teaching to empathy and how we have all learned to mend the pandemic line over the past year and a half+.
You know what I know.
Shooting from the hip and frequently navigating the darkness without a light source, we have all shared heartbreaking moments and privately experienced highs and lows that have not been seen, heard, or felt by anyone other than ourselves (and maybe our beloved pets).
Still, look how far we have come, individually and collectively. So, while we are not entirely out of the woods, I encourage all of us to take a breath and breathe in a moment of pandemic pride. Just like our physical presence in the world, this pandemic moment will not last forever.
Despite not catching sight of the elusive goats this time around, this life, our life, is all about the journey, so when you feel like you have concrete in your boots (yes, me too!), recall that You + I are keepers of one another. We are all on this trek together—one day at a time.
Until we meet again, cast gracefully, and stay the course.❤️
Yours in Solidarity, -akm
July 2021