A River Never Sleeps

In Roderick Haig-Brown's classic 1974 book, A River Never Sleeps, (Skyhorse Publishing, 2010), he concludes with these words: "I still don't know why I fish or why other men fish, expect that we like it and it makes us think and feel. But I do know that if it were not for the strong, quick life of rivers, for their sparkle in the sunshine, for the cold grayness of them under rain and the feel of them about my legs as I set my feet hard down on rocks or sand or gravel, I should fish less often. A river is never quite silent; it can never of its very nature, be quite still; it is never the same from one day to the next. It has a life of its own and its own beauty, and the creatures it nourishes are alive and beautiful also. Perhaps fishing is, for me, only an excuse to be near rivers. If so, I'm glad I thought of it."

Like Haig-Brown, I love to fish because it gives me an excuse to be near water. On this weekend when we celebrate the Baptism of Our Lord (January 12) and members and friends of The Lutheran Church of The Good Shepherd bless the waters of Moxlie Creek here in Olympia www.gsolympia.org, his words seem especially appropriate. May the rivers and streams of the Salish Sea watershed flow and flourish in 2014! jpr