I'm now spending more time in the Waking Up app than on Instagram. It aligns with my 2023 goal to double down on my mindfulness practice. In August, Waking Up added a new feature: "Work In Progress." The show host, Jonah Primo, uses Waking Up to try to live a more mindful, examined life. Recently, he challenged listeners to find and share their WIPMMM or Work In Progress Mini Mindful Moments. Shortly after hearing this I stopped the truck and found mine. Upon returning home, I shared the story with Jonah.
Mindfulness vs. The Fence
It was a chilly and rainy November morning across the Pacific Northwest - perfect weather to catch a searun rainbow trout, also known as a steelhead. I arose at 5 a.m., loaded the truck with my trusty fishing buddy, a golden retriever named Chimmy, and drove 2.5 hours through the foggy darkness to one of the region's most famous steelhead streams. As the sun began to shine, we came to the end of the road. Literally. The only thing between us and our first fly cast was an old barbed wire fence. I lifted my left leg to cross the fence, felt a slight tug, and heard the sound no fly angler wants to hear. I looked down to see a small tear in my breathable Patagonia waders.
A pre "Waking Up" version of myself would have lost it, likely tossing all my fishing gear toward the horizon chased by f-bombs. But not today. This "Work in Progress" breathed deeply. I noticed the small tear fell just above the knee, and most of the riffles on this stream are only knee-deep. I added even more logic on my mindful march to the river. I realized the first breathable wader showed up 30 years ago, and modern man has been catching fish for hundreds of thousands of years, waderless, on much cooler mornings than this one.
As we reached the banks of the freestone stream, I looked over at Chimmy to jokingly tell her we were going to live, even with a torn wader. I noticed she was standing near a very decayed wagon wheel. "Hey Chimmy, I wonder if that's left over from the Oregon trail," I said, "boy, what they would have given for a pair of breathable waders with a small hole."