Journeys of Salmon

I was thinking today about Salmon and the trek they take throughout their lives. See when they are born they have thousands of obstacles to overcome just to survive. They are swept down a river at a high rate of speed where predator after predator lurks for the small hatchlings and they are completely defenseless. After making  it to the ocean and open waters they continue to have to search for food while not being eating themselves. Not only from the fish under them but from the birds over them, the hooks and nets beside and all around them.  They spend their entire life conquering hardships and challenges. Then once they grow to adult hood as if by a mystical compass they start to trek upstream fighting the nets and hooks again. They have to jump small waterfalls and rushing white water and the swipe and teeth of the plethora of bears that are out to feast upon them. They have a homing beacon in their body that leads them to the exact area they were born in, and then they breed and just afterwards die. Their lifeless bodies washed back down the stream they fought so hard to swim up. 

I at first thought that I felt bad for the salmon then I contemplated their life as a whole, their existence and what it stands for. See what if we lived our life as the salmon, we are born and immediately we are immersed into a world that is wide open and rampant and there is danger lurking at every corner. As we grow we are faced with challenges above and below us and are always experiencing obstacles on every side. We spend day after day navigating our paths and trying to find a place of our own, open waters so to speak where we can leave a mark and form a life. Then we decide to have families and careers and day after day we come home worn out from every emergency that befell us. Hour after hour there was a problem a frantic call, a must do now scenario and it was always to avoid the things that would snare and entrap us and tangle us up in the net of complacency. Then we set a goal plan a direction and work endlessly to retirement which is always a uphill swim. Trying to save that nest egg, trying to build that house, trying to have the nicer car or bigger yard or fuller bank account. Only to avoid all the rocks and pitfalls as we push harder and harder upstream, to get to where we started at, the age where we realize it’s not about us but those around us our kids and loved ones that matter the most, and then we die and slowly drift back down stream as life forgets us and time moves on.  See we are very much like the salmon.   It's funny how God always gives us examples and shows us life in the simplest ways. The salmon do not live for themselves rather for the sole purpose of returning to the origin of their existence to allow another to experience the same journey. Some salmon are larger and more brightly colored than others, some never make the journey to the ocean others never make the return trip. Just like in life we see many of our brothers and sister die early and late in various stages. What I notice though is the salmon never give up, they don’t just throw in the proverbial towel. They fight till their last breath they swim with all their heart and being trying to make it, trying to give another a shot at the journey, knowing they cannot control the outcome. Never knowing when their journey will stop or how far they will get, but they never never never quit. We as humans always want to give up when the waters get a little rough. We see one small waterfall and refuse to try and jump over it.  We have more doubt in our minds than we have confidence in our abilities. You were born and you floated down the stream and many of you like me are at a point now where your trying so hard to start the journey home. You have families and jobs and loves ones aging out passing you as you swim back to the origin or life.  When you see the hook you become frightened and turn. You see the swipe of the mighty bears paw and you flee from your task. The rough waters cause you to fret and you stall in a shallow pool of calmness instead of trekking on. See all you need to do is look around you.  For many are trying to make the same journey you are, no one has to make that journey alone, even if it feels at times as though you are. 

I encourage you to tell yourself your going upstream; you’re going to swim in the waters of chaos and madness through the pits of temptation and desperation. You will brave the countless dangers that stand at every turn and take the waterfalls of life on time after time. You have to believe in yourself.  You have to find that in you which fuels and drives you. When you feel like giving up give more.  When you feel like falling, start fighting.  When you feel like pulling into the calm water swim that much faster. When you feel like no one else is around no one cares, no one is there I assure you there are thousands on the same trip just look to your left and right. Then find that beacon that leads you home.  Just as the salmon have a road map embedded into them so you have a life map implanted in your heart. When all seems lost and the waters too fast and the bears too big and the nets to long, let Him that was with you since the start of the journey guide your thought your moves your very essence. See what we fail to realize is we are all just fish in a very large river and we all have many perils to face, but the only way you will not finish the journey is if you do not fight. You might arrive with gashes in the back of your pride, or holes in the side of your hope you might even have fins that are ripped from your courage. But if you keep swimming you will arrive, there is hope there is a reason there is a answer and when you look in the mirror today say two things, I can make the swim and I will live for the purpose. You are here for others, you have to set the example you cant give up little eyes everywhere are watching you. Right now you do matter right now it matter and right now is when you stand your tallest and fight your hardest and you don’t look back downstream. You already know the way, you already know the reason, it was programmed in you since the day you were born, now its up to you to make the swim.