This is kind of about fishing, but kind of not, too. For me, this weekend, the stars all seemed to line up in opposition to me, both literally and figuratively. The wind was terrible and a cool front moved in and seemed to shut down whatever bite was there. The bait shops didn't have bait, then they did and then the fish weren't there in sufficient number for a sustained bite.
At first, this all was really frustrating. But this frustration led to a self-admission. I'm not always in control of my fishing success. I can tie the perfect knot, make the perfect cast, and do everything just right and all that preparation and execution don't matter one bit if the fish don't cooperate. I'm not in control of everything.
It's the tides, the moon phase, the wind/wind direction, the termperature, the atmospheric pressure, the water temperature, salinity, water clarity -- It's a whole bunch of variables over which I have no control.
And it occurs to me that this dynamic isn't unique to fishing. There just will be some times when it doesn't all come together like you thought and you just have to be okay with it and keep going. There are times when forces over which you have no control will come to bear adversely. It's just going to happen and the system which seems to support preparation exists more in the imagination than in reality.
The takeaway for me has to do with perspective. I need to be prepared so that I can take advantage of opportunities IF/WHEN they present themselves. That applies to fishing, but to things besides fishing, too!
