Fishy Logic

From the desk of Teresa Jordan, Executive Director – Sometimes, when there is not much going on, my husband and I go for drive. This past Sunday, we ended up in Port Hope at the Ganaraska Fishway. The thing about this is that human beings built a dam and then had to build a separate fixture for the spawning fish to make it up stream. So, beside the dam in the Ganaraska River, there is a separate section that has been built to allow for trout and salmon to swim upstream to spawn. As a spectator, you see the fish jumping and swimming up the “ladder,” passing the dam to the next part of the river, working against the current at every swish. What you also see are fish jumping high and smacking the dam as they have not yet discovered the spot created for their access.

So, while the majestic and committed journey of the fish working so hard to obey an instinctual drive to swim up river was breathtaking, my mind was consumed by the ones
smacking into the dam. Water is thundering over the dam and swirling in rapids all around so I cannot speak to the plight of any one fish with accuracy, but how many times did the misguided ones collide with the concrete dam before looking for the other opening? How many did not make it at all, so exhausted and battered from their fruitless jumps?

This all reminded me two things … first, my husband has weird ideas about romantic outings … and second, there are people actively altering the waterways of our journey through life all the time. And sure, there may have been an open stream last year but this year there is a concrete dam that changes everything … a funding change, a policy change, a leadership change, a health matter, a heart matter… all blocking the usual trek. We must not keep bouncing off the dam! We need to look for another way,
an opening that others are using, a place where the water pools differently, an opportunity that maybe we missed when all was well. I think that if we don’t give up,
if we don’t wear ourselves out trying the old way, and we regroup and get creative, we will be swimming upstream in no time and making great things happen.

Photo by The Lazy Artist Gallery on Pexels.com