There was no response......

When I first started fishing about 10 years ago as a teenager, I was always eager to hook up something from the pond I usually fished in. The feeling of having a bite was simply amazing as newbie to fishing. I used to go fishing almost on a weekly basis with a close friend of mine who got me started on fishing. I used to call him Foong. He was a funny guy, full of energy, always hyper and running around so when he introduced me to fishing, I was surprised because I simply couldn't imagine an energetic guy like him sitting down to fish patiently.

There was one time, when we went out to our usual pond to fish and it was almost after 2 hours, we both had no bites, no gentle tugs to our lines at all. I was losing patience and was beginning to toss my line without considering whether I was hitting a fish-rich part of the pond or not. Obviously, it was wasted effort and frustration simply built up further. I kept trying and trying and trying for the next hour or so before we both decided to call it a day.

It was a 20 minute walk back home. We didn't live far from each other. I guess he could tell the frustration from the frown I was wearing on my face.

Then he said, "I started fishing at least 3 years before you started and there will always be frustrating fishing sessions like this. You sit your butt there for 3 hours to get nothing. No bite, no tug, no nothing."

I kept silent... still frowning with frustration.

He continued, "We may not have caught anything today but we will come back the next round and try again."

"That was no response, Foong. Nothing...... you know how much bait we wasted today?"

"I know there was no response but it's like that. I mean it's like life. Look at the bright side, at least you didn't get any response from a fish in a pond. Try getting no response from a human. Which would you rather? Seriously, even we face such situations with people."

He did make some sense, as I walked along the road with him.

"Sometimes you can't hope to get a response from something or someone. It's like Murphy's Law at times. The more you want it, the more you won't get it. Maybe it's God's way of teaching us patience or it is simply fate that makes us fools trying to make things happen. Or sometimes, you are simply not meant to get a response. Last week we fished at the same spot and caught 7 fishes. Today we got nothing. That's how life works! If you don't get a response, you can either keep trying at the same spot or try somewhere else, no?"

"Yup! you are right there bud.........."