Fishing Pics, Good Vibes, and Ramblings from California

Here is a cool photo of me, Suki-yaki, and Drew(bacca) from a trip when the "Kennedy Inn of San Diego" was fully booked up with guests. The 3 of us went out fishing on a 1/2 day boat right off the coast of Mission Beach. We instantly landed on top of a MASSIVE school of Sand Bass. Before this time, I was pretty certain that Sukij and I were the WORST fishermen of all time, based on the fact that we had gone surf fishing, catfish fishing, and other fishing - ALL with a ZERO CATCH result. Well, the sand bass basically jumped into the boat for us. We all caught our limit and spent the rest of the time drinking cold cans of Budweiser.

Everyone that knows our buddy Sukij knows that he can turn any time spent together in any place into QUALITY time. I like that. Quality time is important to me. My old man and I used to watch WWF wrestling on Saturday mornings during my awkward Jr. High School years. To the observer it could have appeared as though we were just couch-surfing, but in fact we were forming some really solid bonds that have become some of my best memories of youth - and it meant the world to me, particularly during a time of life that was kind of rough. About a month ago I had to take a day off of work to take my wife to a few doctor appointments. When I told my work counterpart that I had to take a day off with my wife to take her to the doctor, his immediate response was,"Cool Joel! You'll get to spend some quality time with your wife." You know, I hadn't thought of stuff like sitting in a doctor's waiting room or picking up prescriptions as "quality time", but my wise friend's words resonated in my head all day: ANY TIME WITH SOMEONE YOU CARE ABOUT IS QUALITY TIME.

I guess sometimes all we need a gentle reminder to help us see God's beautiful bounty that lies before us. It's an awesome gift when you consciously shift your perspective and realize that ANY time spent with those you love and care about IS quality time. Sukij, I guess we really didn't need to catch any fish on any of those other trips, but to be honest I didn't really care. I just felt honored to spend quality time with you - a man that I deeply respected and admired. Maybe we had already caught well beyond our "limit" in a spiritual sense.

- Joel