Silver linings (with orange slashes)

Go home 2020, you're drunk.

But amidst the illness, anxiety, unemployment, and unrest, there exists opportunities for us to recapture some small goodnesses. To take some time to breathe and have an excuse to simplify.

I've found myself nerding out on my dust-covered entomology books, reading about the nuances of pale morning duns, and how they swim and hatch and what eastern mayflies they're related to. Last night I dug up my corny old fly fishing DVDs and watched Kelly Galloup and Denny Rickards chase trout on Ennis Lake, and Gary LaFontaine and Dick Sharon goof off on the Big Hole and Upper Clark Fork. I've even been tying some flies - leeches, Princes, chironomids, Clouser Minnows - and actually enjoying it.

Friends and I have more time to social distance on the river, and to visit some places we haven't for years. On these trips, it feels like we're unmarried 20-somethings again, without the pressures of adulthood.

During the aforementioned escapes, I feel good and hopeful and grateful - feelings that have been elusive this year. I'm given confidence that we're going to be okay, with a little help from public land, clean water, and wild trout. And looking forward to more silver linings.