A friend came by yesterday and we began talking about fishing. I told him that I’ve missed deep sea fishing ever since I left the Florida Keys. I left because I have a light complexion and skin cancer plagues me. I’m constantly having little precancerous growths burned, cut, and poisoned off. The ones I miss are surgically removed. My solution was to move away from the sea that I love. Fortunately I love to hunt too, but I’m absolutely in love with the ocean.
I told my buddy that I’ve been thinking about moving back to south Florida and finding a good fishing location and picking up right where I left off. I told him that maybe I would live five years less, but at least I’d have some quality to whatever life the Lord allows.
This reminds me of all of those people I know who insist that you must eat cardboard tasting meals because virtually everything is bad for you. I once watched a buddy of mine drink a blender full of the most nauseous looking concoction that I’ve ever seen. It was sickly green like pea soup and contained kale and other nutritious materials that are no doubt good for you, but I told him, (as I munched on a Snickers) that I’d rather be dead than to have to drink that every morning.
I was serious.
Someone sent me a joke the other day and a man asked his doctor if he would live to be 80. The doc asked him if he occasionally smoked a cigar with a hearty glass of wine. He responded, “No, I don’t drink or smoke.
He asked, “Do you enjoy a nice steak grilled on the Barbie to perfection?”
“Oh no too much cholesterol and grilling adds chemicals”.
The doc looked at him over his glasses and asked, “Do you ever go dancing all night and then sleep til 10 and have sex with the wife that you love on Saturday mornings?
“No, I don’t dance; and while my wife is asleep I’m up at dawn every Saturday doing 50 miles on my bike and then working out with free weights til 10.
The doc asked if he liked riding on a motorcycle with the wind blowing his hair, catching sailfish in rough seas, taking pilot’s lessons, scuba diving, shooting a charging Cape Buffalo at thirty yards, and a few other questions to which he replied “Oh no all that stuff is too dangerous!”
The man had answered each one right out of the health journal’s manual and sat there all smug knowing that he lived a life so healthy that he could live forever. He beamed, “Well doc, how about it? Do you think I’ll live to be 80? Without even looking over his glasses the doctor dryly answered, “Oh you probably will, but why would you give a crap?”
I get all kinds of advice about life. I got this letter yesterday from one of my longtime readers.
“I laugh because I know you know all the “stuff” I tell you, but I just want to share this. Our “mind” or brain creates problems for us. Our daughter has many health issues. However, she is always concentrating on her health issues. She pampers them and herself. She mentally never lets go. Now, I can talk because I am not having to deal with them, but, I do know the more you dwell on your illnesses, the longer they plague you.
So, if we turn our health issues over to God expecting him to take care of them, we try to think about other things. True, pain will bring our issues back to our minds, but our bodies respond to our thinking. I probably am not making sense, but I notice that people who keep their health issues or their problems on their minds, create more issues. I do not believe you do that, but I just wanted to share this with you. Love and Prayers,
P. S. I started thinking about my getting older and got depressed, so I decided to quit thinking about the aging process. Optimism is a characteristic of the oldest people I have known. And, Lord only knows what all you have weathered!!!
I agree with my reader. We are what we think. I say live life the way God intended fully. As for our family we put Him first and try our utmost to fulfill His purpose for our lives, realizing that this life is as a vapor. I believe God wants us to work hard but also to enjoy as much of it as we can and realize some real joy in our lives along the way. I told my wife concerning her upcoming breast surgery and radiation we should quit focusing on the negatives and have faith that God has heard our prayers and decided to grant them, and enjoy whatever life God affords. And yes I should begin looking for a fishing locale extraordinaire, (and a boat). And if I look old and occasionally feel the same, so what! I am getting older, but I’ll go out with a bang!
BTW a Messianic Jew friend of mine reminded me that 2015 is the year of REST in the Jewish calendar. He told me I should chill out a little. ZZZZZzzzzzzzz . . .
Eccl. 3:1
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
March 12, 2015 – Click here to listen