50 Shades of Brown

I think personal growth is healthy no matter what age you are.  It expands your perspective, opens you to new experiences, and keeps your mind sharp.  I would like to propose one easy way to grow, try something new. The possibilities are endless. There really are only a couple of outcomes, so why are people afraid?

Fear can be powerful, but fear limits growth.  When trying something new, one of two things might happen.  First, you could confirm what you have always assumed about this new thing.  Or secondly, you could find something absolutely amazing that you’ve been missing your whole life!  I would like to talk about the second possibility.

Many years ago, I was invited to go get Sushi.  I had only gone once before many years before at a bachelor party, and frankly I was underwhelmed. Being a lifelong fisherman, I couldn’t imagine why people enjoyed eating raw or under-cooked fish. But I trusted my friend and decided to agree.  She ordered a Bento Box meal which had different items, with one California roll included.  The chicken teriyaki was excellent, the deep-fried veggies were outstanding, but I kept looking sideways at the roll. Finally, (comically) I picked up the chopsticks, performed something resembling a mixed martial arts routine with my fingers, and managed to place a piece in my mouth.  Not bad! I was pleasantly surprised. Over time, I have tried all sorts of Sushi, and now it is my go-to comfort food. I love Sushi (ok, no eel please) and can’t believe I have missed out on so many years of it.

In college, I became quite proficient at writing.  I’ll admit, I was forced to in order to graduate.  Writing was not something I ever enjoyed, let alone skilled at. After college, I treated my ability as a tool, nothing more.  Fast forward a few years ago, on a whim and through encouragement from several people close to me, I began writing the “50 Shades of Brown” blog. Writing for pleasure, writing to get my voice out there, writing for FUN! I thought when I started writing that I’d publish once a week.  For the first week, I published it once a day!  The ideas kept pouring in.  Life caught up with me and I slowed down, and then all together stopped.  I recently started thinking about it again and on a whim, yesterday started in again.  This is now the 3^rd article I’ve written since yesterday, and something amazing is happening, it’s getting easy! Ideas and words are flying off my fingers, my mind is sharpening, and I’m truly enjoying myself. If I had not tried something new, I would have denied myself the opportunity to sharpen my mind and find pleasure at sitting down writing.

A huge passion and pleasure is fishing.  Growing up, predominantly it was with my dad for trout or pan fish, with a simple trout rod and spinning gear. My father and grandfather used to fly fish before and after WW2, but my father wanted nothing to do with that anymore. I learned how to fish for Salmon and Steelhead along the way with moderate success and even convinced my father to take up fishing for both.  But for many years, I avoided fly fishing mainly because I felt they were a bunch of snobs. In college, for some reason, I felt the urge to try something new. I saved money, bought a fly rod and reel, and my parents even gave me a fly-tying kit for Christmas, and off I went. At first, I was ok.  Trying to keep the cast from the trees behind me or splatting the water in front was a major challenge.  But I kept at it.  Fly tying took longer.  Some of my early attempts looked little better than the fur-balls from our cats.  But one fishing trip it clicked for me.  Dad and I took a boat to a Reservoir 4 hours away.  We generally trolled with spinning gear, but I threw my fly-rod in just the same.  One afternoon we were trolling and came to a wide area kind of shallow up toward the top end of the lake.  I saw fish rising, so I killed the motor, and we dropped anchor.  Dad threw out a bobber and worm, and I stood up and attempted to fly cast.   It took a few attempts, and a lot of patience on my part, but after a few misses, a trout took my fly!  My fly that I had tied! Turned out to be a 15” Brown trout.  I was hooked on fly fishing for life.  I caught a few more and my dad was impressed. He eventually bought a fly-rod of his own years later and joined me on my favorite river.  I have had some incredible days fly-fishing and love the peace that it offers. 

Not every new thing you try will work.  It won’t. You’ll find you don’t like it for some reason or another, but I personally feel that you rob yourself of the potential growth, pleasure and fun that you can receive by occasionally trying something new!