Most people, if they have any self-awareness, take time at life’s transitions to reflect on their experiences and those with whom they shared those experiences.

As they get to the point in life where the days ahead are much, much fewer than the days left behind, there is a poignancy that arises. There is a sense that what was experienced was made significant by what was learned from, and shared with, others –  and what was taught about living and values that transcend individual experience.

And, if people are very lucky they get to create those memories with individuals who have humbly taught profound lessons.

Fly fishing is not religion. It is not as important as climate change or insurrections or nuclear war. It is definitely not as important as raising a child to a functioning adult.

But for those who engage in it, it is a thing that makes the rest of life sublime.

Walter Hodges has just written a delayed remembrance of two such men who have affected him in such ways.

Walter Hodges is a commercial photographer and fly fisher who lived in the Seattle area until two years ago when he and his wife moved to Mexico. The move resulted in the delay of his reflection on Leland Miyawaki and Bob Triggs.

They are well known in Northwest fly fishing. Leland, in particular, from his years at the Bellevue Orvis store and the development of his own surface fly – the Miyawaki popper – is more widely known. I took my first fly fishing class that he helped teach and have talked to him a few times over the years.  Bob is a fly fishing guide on the Olympic peninsula; I’ve never met Bob, but exchanged emails to get his pattern for a chum baby fly.

But as Walter notes, guys like Leland and Bob are of a breed that don’t come often – and may not come again.

You can read Walter’s post here.