Fresh fish, and good swimming!

Here you have a big fish in a big fix! A few weeks ago, my sweetie and I drove down to the water to our friend Mr. Morgan who regularly comes in with beautiful, fresh fish straight from his boat. We wanted a repeat performance of our beautiful fresh fish dinner from a few months back, and when the email came we were excited to take our walk on the pier and check out what the fresh catch was. This is a big, beautiful black cod whose moments were certainly numbered. Another family picked this big boy out of the tank, and our fisherman friend Ben hoisted him up as neatly as you please onto the scale. He gave him to his little boy to hold (he must have been about 5 or six) and he nearly staggered with the sheer weight of it. The fish was surprisingly docile. Perhaps he was resigned to his fate, who really knows how a fish thinks anyway? Mr. Fish was weighed, and then taken off to a table where we heard "thud! THUD!" After "the deed was done," the fish was packaged in ice, money was exchanged and the folks went off to the store where they would get their very fresh fish cleaned for a few bucks.

I was amazed. One moment swimming away in the water--the next...
I had never seen a fish with gills so beautifully bright and pink--they were a beautiful fuschia color and nothing short of remarkable. The color was something you expect from a flower and not from a fish at all. In some ways it was sad to see such a vibrantly alive creature dead in a moment, but after all, God created these things for us to enjoy. I just don't like to think about how they get to that state where we can enjoy them--at least not very much!

We bought two lovely Dover Sole to have cleaned and filleted for us and he generously threw in a sand dab (which looks like an itty bitty baby sole) for us to try. When we got home, I actually tried my hand (thank you, Julia Child) at making fish stock from the head and bones which we took with us from the folks who filleted our fish...I'm saving the stock in the freezer, hopefully to use as a base to make us a nice chowder when it gets colder.) The sand dab was delicious, but to be honest, my hubby would rather have fish that is perfectly filleted with no bones, so I enjoyed the buttery little sand dab mostly myself.

I'm thankful that this has been such a good month for swimming--12 times in the pool and three of those times I have swum a mile and a quarter! Now, I never thought I'd be doing that. OK, all you athletes out there--don't you be laughing now. I thought I was pretty hot stuff, till I found out that my friend Lynn does two miles regularly, without batting an eye. But she's a swim coach, and if she isn't able to be doing some serious miles, there's a problem there!

I'm determined to just keep swimming. Now, if I could only "just keep writing" I'd be doing a much better job of becoming the writer I want to be. I'm becoming a better swimmer because I'm practicing that, and I love it. There's hardly any resistance anymore when I decide to go for a swim. I just get my gear and go, and I'm pretty happy about it, because I love it so much. I hope that I can begin to tackle my writing with the same kind of passion and enthusiasm, and that I will be able to write for the glory of God. I guess that this last month has been all about dealing with my motivation. Why do I want to write anyway? Do I really have anything to say worth reading? What is going on in my heart? All these thoughts run round in my head, but I guess the important thing is to deal with my motivation to make sure it is right.

These last several years have all been about God pruning me.
I've discovered that His subtraction is better than the addition of any other.
There were heavy weights around me, and I couldn't swim at all!
I was having trouble breathing.

And now, because of my Messiah,
I'm learning to swim in the love of God.
I'm learning to trust.
I'm learning to rest.
I'm thankful.
End of story for today, but I plan to go swimming later...