Living with the Salmon

We knew the salmon were supposed to come up the creek in September. We waited anxiously. I looked out the window and could see the creek quite clearly. I expected the salmon to jump up the rocks, like I've seen on video, but I didn't see them. We went and looked up close, from the little bridge and didn't see them. The next day, Matt was out working in the yard. He came to the front door, which was locked. He was yelling, "Salmon!! Salmon!!" I could hear him and was running around, looking for my shoes and trying to get the kids together to go out. He didn't know if we could hear him. He started ringing the doorbell. I yelled out that we were coming.

We went out and followed him down to the creek. We had to look for a while, and then we saw them. The salmon are here!! We were excited to see them but never expected to feel the awe that came over us then. We've lived here so shortly. I never knew much about the connection between us and salmon, but I looked for information on-line because I wanted to know if we could have friends who fish here to get salmon from the creek and have our own salmon bake on the fire pit outside.

I saw some talks on-line about protecting the salmon. One of the speakers was a native American man. He talked about how they had depended on salmon to sustain them for so many years. Now they're in danger, and the native Americans want to protect and sustain them in return. We were moved when we saw them, and watching them struggle to swim upstream is fascinating. I went out with Winter again the other day to watch the salmon. I was out with Holly one day because she just wanted to go outside. We just ran around the land for a while. She especially liked running in and out under the canopy of a tree, playing peek-a-boo with me.

When we came to see this house the first time, we weren't sure we wanted it because the freeway runs along above the creek. It's noisy. We were afraid it could make life very uncomfortable. The more we thought about it, the more we decided everything else here outweighed the noise of the freeway. When I go out with the kids, I notice how much I'm not noticing the freeway noise. I'm too preoccupied with their joy as they play. I'm too busy staring at the salmon. I'm too overcome with the surrounding beauty, and I'm so grateful to live here with the salmon.