I have never held a fishing pole. On one of our family vacations a couple of my sons did, but I was on the sidelines. There is even a photo of the fish dangling in front of the younger one who somehow managed to snag it with no help from me. But I did take the picture. Which back then involved film and development. For people under thirty this is an unknown. We had to take the canister to a processing place, wait a week, and come back for prints. I often got doubles. For this stellar moment I ordered twenty. 

 

I doubt that frying the filet was part of his experience, as that particular child was a picky eater. The only fish he consumed were gold. 

 

I have heard tell of a practice called Catch and Release. My vague understanding is that the quest is in the hooking, not the keeping, of the trout. They are allowed to return to the stream. There is probably a wound involved, at least for the fish, but hopefully they heal.

 

A friend was telling me about a therapy in which she was led to revisit an emotion in her past. It entailed giving the pain a chance to come up for air. Be felt. Looked at. Named. Remembered. Then her body was able to let it go. She said that in the days following there was a shift. She was less hooked by anger. 

 

It did absolutely nothing to eradicate the events that have followed her for years. But that doesn't seem to matter. Being able to dredge them up from the murky waters of her memory, and let light fall on them brought relief. 

 

She thinks she will be able to heal.