Although we haven’t mastered salmon fishing in Washington, we have caught a couple. This day on the Sol Duc River within Olympic National Park we didn’t get any. A park ranger confirmed that we had missed the fish’s upstream journey by a few days. That didn’t spoil our day. See me fishing a deep hole in the idyllic setting. The experience was deeply satisfying.

A lot of things in life are like fishing. Improving your skills and using them to make an excellent effort at a difficult endeavor is a great joy. Your effort is flavored by the hope you might, will probably, succeed eventually. That success is made all the sweeter by the memory of the effort.

Here’s hoping you strive for some great prize and that you’ll find fulfillment in the effort. And in the case of our fishing, steelhead season is coming.

Drew Coons