Ice Fishing

If there was ever an illustration of HOPE it would have to be fishing. And an illustration of FAITH would definitely be riding in a vehicle miles out onto the middle of the frozen lake...and then spending the night in a fish house! Usually the ice is cracking and creaking, and it does take a measure of faith to be able to sleep soundly.

Almost once a year Tom and I have spent a weekend out on Red Lake or Lake of the Woods in the middle of the winter with our friends Jim and Candy. The men say we go there to fish, and I must admit that I absolutely love eating freshly caught walleye. For some reason it tastes even better when we're out on the ice in a -30 degree windchill! So the hope is that when we go fishing we will catch fish.

And some years we have caught lots of fish! One year we were catching so many that we weren't keeping any. Catch and release with every one. I asked Jim "Why don't we just leave? We can catch our limit and be in a nice restaurant in time for dinner?" 

But most years there's been a little more "fishing" and a lot less "catching". 

Regardless of our success, we have always enjoyed our time on the ice. We've also come home with many memories, some good stories to tell, and all kinds of inside jokes. What I've learned is that even though we go with the hope of catching fish, whether we catch them or not isn't important. What is important is the time we've spent with people we care about, the laughs we've shared.

Which brings me back to hope. 

Henry David Thoreau once said Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.  

This year as we look ahead to Thanksgiving and Christmas it's hard not to feel down. We're missing out on so many of the things we enjoy. It's all so different. Perhaps we're going fishing without knowing what we're going after. Perhaps we're planning for the holidays without taking the time to  prepare our hearts for what truly matters. So...

Let's add some joy and hope into our holiday season. Send that extra note to a friend. Bake all your favorite cookies. Decorate with every last piece of tinsel you can find. Play games with the kids. Sing your favorite Christmas carols. Make memories.

We don't know what the holidays will bring, but we know what we're celebrating. 

When you look back years from now on Christmas 2020 wouldn't it be wonderful if you could remember it as the year that Christmas was even more meaningful than it ever had been before.

Each year Chris Hawkey from KFAN radio posts a Christmas video. This year he talks about making Christmas 2020 wonderful. Listen. Enjoy.