Life at the End of a Fishing Line

The original plan for Time is a River was to write a novel about women friends who share the love of fly-fishing. Then fate intervened in the form of an invitation from Brookside Guides in Asheville to volunteer my time helping at the North Carolina/South Carolina Casting for Recovery retreat. The program is designed to help breast cancer survivors find their soul-stirring connection to life once again.

So I journeyed to the mountains of our sister state, where I served as assistant, pack mule and anything else required of me for fourteen cancer survivors. Some of the women had only recently completed their treatments, while others had been cancer free for many years.

Standing in that river with these survivors, I watched them learn to catch then release their trout to swim away and live another day. From their expressions of surprise and delight when they caught their first fish on a fly rod I found the heart of my story— connecting to life at the other end of a fishing line.

"Stand a moment longer and listen to the music of the water. Breathe deep and soon you will catch its rhythm and your blood will pump its heady beat. As your body hums, your mind releases the nagging worries you carried with you to the river-- thoughts of business and family and work and future slowly drain from you to be picked up in the current and dragged away. You now feel lighter, freer. You see with fresh eyes. You hear the secrets of the river. You are the river. Now you are ready to connect with the fish." (pg. 146, Time is a River)

My main character Mia, which loosely translates to mean ‘me,’ would embody the hopes every person has of discovering personal strengths and finding the joy in living. Mia would be a breast cancer survivor, but needed to learn what it means to not merely survive, but to live again through the healing powers of nature.

My grandmother and mother both died of breast cancer. In their memory, I continue to support Casting for Recovery as a means to bring survivors to the river, where they can let go of their troubles, breathe in that heady freedom from cancer worries and cancer treatments, then boldy go out to find their bliss.

"This was her body. She knew she should let go of her old self-image and make peace with the way her body was now... Mia closed her eyes and said a small prayer for strength. She had to let this fear of cancer go down the drain with the dirty water. To live fully, she had to believe she would live." (pg. 49, Time is a River)

What can you do in honor of breast cancer survivors or in memory of those claimed by the cancer? You can support the national non-profit Casting for Recovery in your region. For more information, visit http://www.castingforrecovery.org/.