The Gifts of Perseverance and Patience

Last weekend as I was hiking on a trail close to my home, I was surprised by the sounds of vigorous splashing coming from the adjacent creek. Convinced that I was alone on the trail, I was curious to know the origin of the sounds. Upon further exploration I discovered that the sound was coming from fish in the creek! Gradually it dawned on me that I was watching the process of salmon swimming upstream, to return to their birthplace.

For about 30 minutes I observed this process with fascination. The splashing noises I heard were individual fish struggling upstream against the flow of rushing water. During this time, I witnessed repeated attempts to jump up one particular 30 cm waterfall. What struck me as incredible, was that not one single salmon succeeded in this quest during this time. Even more remarkable, was that this was only one of many rapids and waterfalls that would need to be jumped, along the length of the creek.

As I reflected on this, I wondered why it would be, that so much work could be required of these salmon; my thoughts turned to the role of perseverance in the face of difficulty. If nature requires such perseverance of its creatures, perhaps the striving that we all engage in each day, is something we’re intended to do. As a musician and piano teacher, I am in close daily contact with the idea of persistence, and the feeling of not quite making it some days. But maybe as fellow creatures of nature, we too are called to perseverance and patience. Perhaps the road to accomplishing something of value is meant to be marked with difficulty, and even the appearance of failure at times. But those repeated attempts by the salmon, they teach us something: gradually, by repeated attempts, we will see success!

One further aspect of this encounter with spawning fish, involves the role that salmon play in returning nutrients to the environment. Since rivers flow downstream, some means is needed to return nitrogen upstream, and salmon supply this. Is there some larger good in our striving to achieve a goal? Could we actually be doing something good for the world around us? This week in my music-making, the salmon have been my inspiration.