Are we all fish in a pond?

Morning coffee at the pond

I spent the last week in France with my children, our mobile home looking at a lake. While drinking my morning coffee on our terrace, I watched the fishermen arriving with the sunrise, taking their seats, and sitting there quietly, waiting patiently for long hours.

When they catch a fish, they pull it out, slowly, everyone having their own rituals. Someone takes a selfie, someone says something, maybe a goodbye to their catch - and then the fish is back in the water soon.

And this repeats again and again, ritually. The men and the fish, living in a symbiosis.

Watching them for long hours, I was thinking about this ritual, and I was thinking about the fish: being caught and returned, again and again, this being repeated all day every day. Do they suffer? Is this their normal, their bubble? Is this their own version of “life has always been like this…”? Do they try to avoid being caught, or they don't mind it anymore? Are there some rebel-fish, who never get caught? Or other type of rebel-fish, who wants to be caught, because then, at least for a few seconds, they see the world from a different perspective?

(Meanwhile, another man, another fish. The man releases it from the hook, lifts to eye level, and says something to the fish before letting it back to the water.)

Does the fish understand what the man tries to tell? Does the fish also tells something to the man? Does the man understand? Does he see how different the fish-world is to ours here, outside of the pond?

Or… is it? Is our life different, or we also live in the grind of our everydays, the Alltag as the German say?

Are we all fish in a pond?

We get caught, it might hurt, a different experience every time still the very same. Then we’re back in our pond, this warm and cozy, familiar reality.

Can we change? Do we want to change? Do we dare to dream about a life outside of this, maybe a bigger lake, maybe with less fishermen, maybe more food, more space to swim, more beauty - and maybe sharks, too. Maybe more life, more joy, more skills to learn, and more danger as well - but we don’t know until we experience.

I see people in their lukewarm pond so much. Staying in a job that makes them burn out. Staying in friendships that drain their energy. Staying in a relationship where they lost themselves long time ago.

Are we all fish in a pond of our limiting beliefs?

I invite you to pause for a moment and ask yourself: What is your pond? What rituals, routines, or beliefs do you swim in every day - sometimes comforting, sometimes confining? Are there edges you haven’t explored, or deeper waters you quietly long for? Maybe it’s time to notice not just the familiar safety of the pond, but the possibility of something more - beyond the surface, beyond what you’ve always known. What would it mean for you to slip past the hook, or even leap into a bigger, wilder lake? Are you ready to swim toward new horizons?