Snags?

I have only fished one or two times.  The first time I had to have my Father attach the worm to my hook.  I was NOT going to touch that creepy crawly thing, and I could NEVER gruesomely connect the hook into the worm...YUCK!

One time I fished with my honeybunch Nyle.  He tried to teach me how to cast a fishing line, and how to fly fish.  After almost following the fishing pole into the water, then casting poorly and winding up with my line in a very large snag at the edge of the water, I realized that I would just about rather be having a root canal than fishing.

I've always found it fascinating that some people (Including my honeybunch) found it fascinating to watch television programs with people fishing.  To me it closely approximates the excitement of watching paint dry on walls.  I asked my hubby one day, "What do you find interesting about this?"  He retorted, "The angles these professionals use to cast, the types of bait that they use for different types of fish, and seeing the catch that they reel in."  Oddly, I still didn't really see the attraction...not even a little bit!

Snags tangle fishing lines, waste bait, and sometimes make it necessary to cut your line and then restring your fishing pole.  In this context there is not one single thing positive to say about snags.

In life there are also snags.  It was a terrible snag for me when my honeybunch died at the age of 54.  I had not planned on being a widow at this age.  I thought I had at least another 10, 20 years with my darling.  This snag threatened to stop me from progressing.  I simply wished to climb into bed and wait to die and be reunited with my sweetheart of 27 years of marriage.

I'm grateful for the daughters that we have, and the furry family that we have as well.  I had to get up and help all of them with food to eat, water to drink, walks to have, ears to listen and affirm (that last one would be to our daughters, not our furry family, the furs do NOT articulate the English language effectively), and two shoulders for our daughters to cry on.  They kept me putting one foot in front of the other until I could again motivate myself to live!  I also watched over their sorrow with a listening ear.

What snags are you facing today?  Are you working at a job that you don't care for?  Is education turning out to be more difficult than you expected?  Is someone you love dearly ill?  One of my friends lost her husband, found one of her kitties dead, and then had her entire basement flooded with 4 feet of water.  Oh wait, did I mention that she had a specialty type of surgery to help her cope with her extreme back pain, and then found out that she now needs shoulder surgery?

Snags can stop our forward momentum.  They can "dam" us.  You know how a dam stops water?  Snags can create that exact type of daming.  Beavers build enormous piles of snags that are used to block the water for them.

Can a snag be a stepping stone for us to greater things?  That would be a YES!  As we clear away our snag in one way or another it can open our perspective to understand more about ourselves and others.  It can motivate us to the need for greater achievement.

What makes the difference between a snag that dams us, or a snag that improves us?  The fix is simple in three letters...Y  O  U!  That's right, YOU are in charge of how you approach the snags of life.  If that seems too simple to be true I dare you to test what I'm saying.  Don't just take my word for this principle...sit down and analyze the snag or snags that you are facing.  There is a world wide web of possible sources to help you move through and then away from your snag.

Attitude is a choice.  Each new morning, week, month, year, decade, or in the case of those of us living since the 20th century, a new millenium, gives us the opportunity to start over.  It's not something that will just HAPPEN.  We must each use the NEW that comes our way, then make the choice to strengthen ourselves to rise beyond our snags.  That's right.  I said that attitude does not come magically to each and everyone of us.  When confronted with snags large and small we must make the choice whether to let the snag overcome us, or whether to let the snags of life improve us!  WE MAKE THAT CHOICE!  

WE CAN MAKE OUR CHOICE BY SIMPLY DOING NOTHING!  I'm paraphrasing one of my favorite quotes, All that it takes for evil to triumph in this world is for good men to do nothing.  I also love the paraphrased quote, A life without mindfulness is a life wasted.  If we never examine ourselves, if we just let each day fade in and out without a desire to change or improve...we will soon find ourselves in our 20's 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's and so on with the knowledge of many, many missed opportunities.


It should be absolutely absolute that it's better to regret a choice that you made than it is to not make a choice at all!  Think about that idea for a moment.  Even the teeny tiny choices that we make in life impact us, and sometimes all those in the realm of our sphere.  When I eat nothing but junk food for a day or too it makes me feel grumpy, and it's very hard for me to keep my grumpy to myself.  As I share my grumpiness, it impacts those that I live with, and any that really know me!  What to eat seems an innocuous choice but the older I get the more important that choice becomes, and the more quickly I feel the consequences of that choice.


Choose to do SOMETHING, and use your your snags to motivate improvement in your life.  YOU are creating your own reality, authoring your own book of life.