Sometimes you only catch a fish for the sake of catching a fish.

Pull it from the stream, observe it, marvel, tenderly unhook, release.

The fish swims away.

This process of throwing a hook into the water attached to a line to a rod to a pair of arms, is called fishing.

Similarly when we go about our day moving from task to task or conversation to conversation we can practice something called ‘being’.

It’s an art I’ve never understood because nobody speaks straight. Always riddles and kaons and yet I’ve been fascinated by that which I cannot grasp since I was a kid.

Being, like fishing, can involve throwing a hook into the stream and pulling up whatever thought happens to swim by.

Pull it from the stream, observe it, marvel, tenderly unhook, release.

The thought swims away.

I find with enough practice, I notice random hooks I’ve not seen before.

Pulling all sorts of thoughts out of the stream of consciousness.

It invites enquiry; what exactly is behind the compulsion to continue throwing hooks and grabbing those slippery thoughts to examine them?