A Fish Tale

ONCE upon a time....in a far away ocean at the edge of yesterday, there lived a fish. She was a funny fish. A one-of-a-kind fish. She spent much time swimming about, joining any number of passing schools...laughing, talking, smiling and yet as the schools moved on, this fish always stayed. She was a lonely fish. Never quite fitting in, never really knowing where she wanted to be. She knew of many things, she was very wise and had spent many years learning of other oceans and other fishes. Yet there was much she was lacking, feelings and experiences that were so private and so hidden that even she doubted their existence.

AS the years and the tides drifted slowly by, many fishes and many fisherman passed through the waters of her home. She would softly swim just along the surface, watching, wary of the hooks and traps of the fishermen...and setting subtle distances from the passing schools of the many kinds of fish. Always watching, always listening, and always alone. Other fishes marveled at how like them she was and many fishermen lusted to trap her in their nets. All believing she was what they wanted her to be...none of them ever seeing her as she really was.

ONE twilight evening, on a day of tides and soft waves, yet another fisherman happened by. The fish cautiously broke the surface for only a moment...looking to see what bait this fisherman would use. Ready to dive to the safety of the ocean’s depths. To leave behind yet another threat to her heart. But, to her dismay, there was no bait. There was no hook. There was only a fisherman. A lone and solitary figure, a creature of the sea that stood tall on two legs. In her amazement at his lack of trappings, the fish forgot she was open to his vision. Forgot to dive beneath the sheltering waves. And as she watched this fisherman, mesmerized by his gentle yet strong visage, he spoke.

"COME little fish," he said, "come and talk with me, nothing more. I am lonely too and I have been hurt by the hook of another. I would share bits of me with you if you will share bits of you with me. I will not change you. I will not judge you. I will not see you for any more or any less than what you are. We can help each other my fish. We can reach out and touch all the magical things that are there...free for the taking but only visible when two creatures unite and stand as one."

THE fish heard this mortal's words and was stunned. A sense of peace overwhelmed her, a sense of rightness and inevitability. Without conscious thought, the little fish swam over to the fisherman and gently floated along the surface of the sparkling blue water next to his wooden vessel. Feeling safe and secure. Feeling complete for the first time in her long life. Knowing that the danger of staying on the surface was very real, knowing that the distance between them was immense. She was but a fish and lived in the water. He was a fisherman and stood on a surface she could never safely traverse. And yet, filled with an emotion so intense, so all-encompassing, she never once conceived of any other option.

THEY spent days and nights together. The fisherman and this fish. They talked of many things. Each conversation yet another healing stitch in the old and painful wounds they had both carried for so long and for so many miles. And as these days went by, the fish began to change. Things began to stand clearly in her vision and she began to develop a sense of belonging and self-identity. More and more she would slip away from the fisherman for a minute or two, diving down to the deep caverns under the ocean, returning with the tiny treasures of herself that she had hidden so long ago. Sometimes playfully splashing him and sometimes timidly sliding them upon his deck, she one-by-one presented him with these bits and pieces of herself.

AND, because he was a fisherman of great integrity, he took these gifts from this fish and gently tucked each one away in a place that was safe and sheltered. The fish watched him do this, watched him treasure and respect all the odds and ends and bits of beach glass that she gave him. And she fell in love with him. With his gentleness, his intelligence, his quiet but all-pervading strength. She fell in love with a fisherman that never asked her to be anything more than what she was. A fisherman that stood up to her foolishness and respected her wisdom. A fisherman that made her complete and filled her with a sense of peace and pride in what she truly was.

ONE day, as the sun was softly rising and the sky was waking up, the fisherman looked sadly down at the fish and said to her,

"FISH, my little fish, my time is up and I must go. The world I have left behind beckons me back and I must go."

WITHOUT the slightest hint of hesitation, the fish vaulted out of the safety the ocean she had always known and landed upon the deck of the fisherman’s boat. Laying on the polished wooden surface, exposed to the sun and the wind.

"OH fish," cried the fisherman, "you cannot do this. You cannot leave the safety of the water for you may not survive without it."

WITH no pause in her reply, as the fish lay on the deck of the boat, vulnerable and naked, she gazed up at her fisherman and softly said,

"I love you fisherman and there can be no world worth living in without you by my side. I have lived safely all my life and been so very unhappy. Now, because I love you, the excitement and the challenges all seem so very wonderful and important. I am part of you and you are part of me. I cannot be whole without you. And because of you, I can be who I am. Take me with you, my fisherman. One day of total and complete love on this boat with you makes a whole lifetime of being safe and alone in the ocean seem so unimportant."

AND so, smiling gently, the fisherman hoisted up the anchor and raised his sails and slowly he turned his craft to catch the departing winds. And as the seabirds watched and the waves fell behind, a tiny fish and a fisherman gazed off to the horizon. Two entities, two separate beings filled with hopes and wants and dreams. A fish and a fisherman seeing a land that had not been there before. A land that had only appeared the moment they joined and became one.