A new beginning. Yep – giving up a great job and throwing everything to the wind to “follow my bliss” as Joseph Campbell would say. In some ways you could say I’m taking a risk, but the reality is that I am just taking another field trip in life.
I have been pulled away from the present by a force even more powerful than the one that has kept me as a librarian for the majority of my life. For the next 14 months, I will be planning and then visiting 52 rivers in the Rocky Mountains – one a week starting in January 2013 to learn as much as I can about being on my own as a woman and an angler – a fly-fisher woman. I will learn how to read a river, identify the insect life, assemble a rod, figure out what kind of line to use, what kind of fly to “match the hatch”, what kind of knots to use, what kind of cast I should make, how to do a perfect drift, how to… Yes, I will be doing all that, but I will be doing so much more.
I will pay attention to the world of nature – to the wildlife, to the plants, to the birds – to the weather – the cold and the hot, the wind and the calm. I will learn how to be with myself for long periods of time and to be dedicated to the process of sharing my story with others through this blog and eventually in a book. Unlike most writing about fly fishing, this will not be from the perspective of an expert. Here I will share my experiences and knowledge learned, and I will ask you to share your adventures, passions, inspirations. This is my year of the unknown. I hope that you will share your reactions and insights.
