In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the intertwined nature of personal beliefs and pastimes within family life.
Norman Maclean's quote reflects the intimate connection between family traditions, spiritual beliefs, and shared activities, suggesting that in his family, the practice of fly fishing is as significant and meaningful as religion. This intertwining illustrates how familial bonds and shared experiences often shape one's values and identity, creating a unique tapestry of life where leisure and spirituality coexist seamlessly.
In practice
During a family gathering, you might share this quote to highlight your family's unique traditions.
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.
Ahead and to the west was our ranger station - and the mountains of Idaho, poems of geology stretching beyond any boundaries and seemingly even beyond the world.
Poets talk about "spots of time", but it is really the fishermen who experience eternity compressed into a moment. No one can tell what a spot of time is until suddenly the whole world is a fish and the fish is gone.
As I get considerably beyond the biblical allotment of three score years and ten, I feel with increasing intensity that I can express my gratitude for still being around on the oxygen-side of the earth's crust only by not standing pat on what I have hitherto known and loved. While oxygen lasts, there are still new things to love, especially if compassion is a form of love.
At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear. It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us. You can love completely without complete understanding.
One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly becoming the author of something beautiful even if it is only a floating ash.
It's up to each of us to help create a better world for our children.
I grew up in a family of strong women and I owe any capacity I have to understand women to my mother and big sister. They taught me to respect women in a way where I've always felt a strong emotional connection to women, which has also helped me in the way I approach my work as an actor.
Well now, I'd rather have you than a dozen boys, Anne,' said Matthew patting her hand. 'Just mind you that β rather than a dozen boys. Well now, I guess it wasn't a boy that took the Avery scholarship, was it? It was a girl β my girl β my girl that I'm proud of.
The best bought-up children are those who have seen thier parents as they are. Hypocrisy is not the first duty of a parent.
It is the logic of consumerism that undermines the values of loyalty and permanence and promotes a different set of values that is destructive of family life.
A home is a kingdom of it's own in the midst of the world, a stronghold amid life's storms and stresses, a refuge, even a sanctuary.
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