To know my family is to fish with us.

You will see Townes’s patience. You will see him study and hunt his prey, thoughtfully and meticulously, never tiring.

You will see Bess’s wandering, independent, adventurous spirit. She won’t sit still to fish as long, but she’ll be splashing in the stream, on an adventure, or creating new friends to play with in a separate corner of the pond.

You will see Guy’s curiosity. He, too, might lose interest in the fishing, but he will catch tadploes, minnows, turtles, and frogs, probably also snails and insects, and some pretty flowers.

You will see what has become of Sam as a two year old who doesn’t really get much of a say in our decision to go fishing. He bounces between siblings like a pinball, someone always in charge so he doesn’t fall in the water. But he will fall in the water. And he’ll be mad about it. Then he’ll want to grab the fish in the bucket. And he’ll start talking to it loudly. And then we can’t catch anymore fish because we have a loud two year old with us who is mostly interested in snacks or everyone else’s attention. But even though the fish are all scared away, the big kids love him. And really, mom is always happy to have him in his lap when he becomes utterly exhausted.

And lastly you will see daddy – his waders half on to fish himself, but darting from one tangled line to another, forever sacrificing his own fishing time in the name of the kid’s fishing time. And you will see him change Sam’s diaper who has chosen to poop during our fishing trip.

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