Marine veteran promotes healing for people and the planet through fly fishing

Marine veteran promotes healing for people and the planet through fly fishing

By Stephen Camelio

Source: wearethemighty

4/15/2022

I wrote a screenplay called Mending The Line about a Marine who finds physical and emotional healing through fly fishing and nature. Last year, when the film was about to go into production, our director Joshua Caldwell told me about Steve Ramirez and his book Casting Forward. Where I had made up a story about the horrors of PTSD and the healing power of nature, Ramirez had lived it – finding his relief like the characters in the story by going fly fishing, which is why passages from his book made their way into the film.

Thanks to organizations like Project Healing Waters and Warriors and Quiet Waters, fly fishing, with its rhythmic motions, meditative qualities and immersion in nature, has become a part of the healing process for many veterans dealing with physical and emotional wounds. Having grown up fishing with a cane pole and bobber when Florida was still wild with gators and panthers, it was a long, strange trip for Ramirez to find his way back to the healing peace of the outdoors.