Wake Up

I wake up with a start, drawn out of deep sleep by some unknown force, my slumber crash landing into dawn. The bedroom is dark and so is the sliver of sky I can see from through the window but, as an indicator of time, this piece of data isn’t helpful at all, really - these days, it’s dark from about 5:00 pm to 7:00 am anyway.

As soon as I gain consciousness of being awake, anxiety washes over me. I have to do something, soon, but what is it? Do I have a phone call scheduled? A video meeting? Did I forget to email someone? My mind spins through several possible scenarios that happened on previous, recent mornings but I’m just not quite awake enough to make a connection.

Finally, I have it: I’m going fishing. The alarm goes off.

Standing in the living room, I consider my to-do list and how much time I have to complete it all. It’s a few minutes after 5:00 am and I should be pulling out of the driveway at 6:40 am, at the latest. This is beyond enough time to do the things I need to, which I appreciate, but I’m now wondering if I want to delay starting some of the to-dos. While I’d love to be drinking coffee right now, I think that I’d rather have a full cup when I hit the road. I’d also like my breakfast burrito to be fresh off the griddle when I’m walking out the door. So, instead of getting started in the kitchen, I elect to slowly bring gear out to the truck, doing what could’ve been done in three trips, in six. About an hour-and-a-half later, at 6:38 am, with steaming coffee cup in hand, I walk to the truck for the last time. The cab is warm because the heat has been on for ten minutes by now. Dare I say, a perfect exit execution.

I read some business or life advice somewhere, sometime that said you should make your bed ever single morning so that you start your day with a 'small victory’ and set yourself up for success thereafter. Sounds good on paper, but I was never inclined to make my bed, especially right after getting out of it. But I’ll happily get up earlier-than-necessary to ensure that I’m comfortably on time, especially when going fishing.

As to the correlation of on-time-ness and catching fish, this statistic is unknown and likely never will be. The fish are on their own time - never early, never later, never waiting, never rushing. Any correlation of our actions to theirs may as well be coincidence as much as anything else.

A river that may or may not contain steelhead - can’t confirm personally.