I was running by the American River in Sacramento a few mornings ago. I was running a little later than I usually do. I had taken the dogs for a walk earlier walk while it was cooler. They are loving the air-conditioner kind of dogs.
On the way out I saw geese and ducks and ground squirrels and enjoyed the mirror reflection of the trees on the water. Running from bright sunlight to dappled shade and back to bright sunlight made a pleasant change.
On the way back I saw a cormorant drying its wings. Cormorants feed by diving for fish. After they dive in the water and swim around and catch fish they try to find a sunny spot to dry their wings so they can start the whole process again.
Below you will see a picture of the cormorant drying it’s wings.
Cormorants were used by Japanese fisherman for years. The fisherman would put a ring or snare around the cormorant’s neck so it couldn’t swallow the bigger fish. The fisherman would take the big fish out of the cormorant’s throat when it came back to the boat. This process would happen over and over.
The fisherman would reward the cormorant by giving it bigger fish when the fisherman had enough of a catch.
Here are my two questions. The first is how many of us forget to dry our wings? That’s not the same thing as sharpening the saw. Many of us forget that we have to do maintenance on ourselves. You have a house and it occasionally needs paint. If you don’t paint the exterior of the house every once in a while you get dry rot, weather damage, sun damage and the rest.
Why do we forget that we need to do upkeep on ourselves? I lift weights as well as run. There is a saying. If you want to get big you have to lift big, eat big, sleep big and rest big. If you want to get a big life you have to to the same. Live big, sleep big and rest big. Eat big is a relative thing. Eating big on nutrients and fiber and protein, with enough calories to sustain you is big enough.
How many of your rest big on a regular basis? How many of you dry your wings? Maybe it’s time to dry your wings so you can dive into life and swim again.
My last question for the day is this. How many of you are wearing a ring around your neck keeping you from enjoying the fruit of your labor, and why did you put it there and when are you going to take it off?