"The mermaid and the sailor", a fairy tale about leaving
Once upon a time, there was a sailor. He had travelled all over the seven seas, for a long time, trying to find inner peace, without being able to do so, despite his many, many, travels. Wherever he would go, he would try to settle in a new harbor. But every time, after a while, the sea would call him and he felt the urge to sail away once again. Every time, he would try to fight this urge for as long as he could, but in the end, the call of the sea would win his heart. And he would give up the fight against this call. After many of these fights, which would leave home exhausted and wounded, he one day realized that those battles were useless, that fighting against his heart was nonsense, and was hurting him too much. He realized he shouldn't fight his true nature anymore, that he should accept it and go with the flow of his inner river instead of swimming against it. One of the reasons he was fighting this inner tide was because every time he had to leave a harbor he had lived in for a while, it also meant he had to leave close friends he had made, and also lovers he was so deeply connected too. But every time he had to sacrifice those connections, because of the merciless call of the sea, that was pushing him to go further and further on it's journey, like a drifting boat taken by a current to strong for it to resist. One night, on the eve of the departure from a town that he thought he had settled for a while, he went to the sea, after having drunk so many glasses of whiskey to try to calm the storm of sorrow that was battling his heart. Facing the sea, he started crying and swearing at the sea for the torments she was pouring on his desperate soul. "Why don't you leave me alone ? Why do you always push me to go back on the seas, forcing me to leave those that I love?" he yelled at the sea. "I'm suffering so much because of you, because of the urge for freedom your plant in my heart" he shouted endlessly at the waves. After a while, as waves of tears were flooding his eyes, he heard a voice singing through the deep blue. He first thought he was hallucinating but the singing became closer and closer. As he was searching the darkness of the water, he suddenly saw a woman slowly emerging from the sea.
He was puzzled someone would swim at that time of the night, specially in this bay which was known for its deadly currents. But he soon realized it was not a woman that appeared before him, but a mermaid.
"Calm down your tears dear sailor", she said with the most enchanting voice he had ever heard.
"Thou shall not cry but rejoice for the gift that was given to you to travel the oceans again and again, to create bonds and love with so many creatures of the land", she continued.
-"But I suffer so much every time I have to lean this friends and lovers, and they suffer too from having to let me go", answered the sailor, his voice clogged by tears.
-"Thou shall accept the very nature of yours", she said.
"You were not born to this world to stay in the comfort and living a peaceful life in a forever home. You came to this world as a messenger, whose fate is to spread love and open the hearts to the beauty of life, to wake up the sleeping souls and unlock their soul, so that they can taste the fruits of the tree of life. After you have done so, your soul will always call you to other horizons, to other destinations and to new hearts, as this world is full of people that lost their way and need a light in the darkness of life", she whispered to him, with the most comforting voice.
"They will be sad when you leave, but they also will keep the memory of you in their hearts, and this memory will feed their soul and guide them to feed their inner fire, as it is through this way they will know happiness and inner peace. At least for those who will understand the message you are trying to deliver", she chanted.
"And for thy, you will have to make an important change inside your heart, that of accepting the fate that was given to you, and embrace it. Then will you be given the inner peace you are looking for. It will be your most challenging travel, a lonely expedition deep inside of you, the greatest and more demanding journey a man can be leading. But if you do so, thou shall reach territories few men can have access to, territories where you will access the most precious things in life, the highest level of love, that love that is free from any boundaries, that level of love that will give you the most precious treasure of life, that of an immense ocean of memories with the ones you will have opened the hearts and souls. This will be a painful process every time you have to leave them, and you won't get used to it, but by letting go those souls and set them free of pursuing their own path, thou shall know inner peace, for thou will hence learn what real love is, a love without chains attached, a love that is totally free, a love that doesn't need to keep hearts in a cage."
-"But this is not possible", replied the sailor, "leaving a beloved one is so painful, and what kind of love is it that you have to abandon your beloved one?".
-"You are mistaking when you say you abandon them, for love creates a bond that doesn't know distance or time passing by. For once love is born between two hearts, it never dies even if the two hearts are separated. The only thing that matters is that each heart keeps feeding it's own fire. Love is not there to prevent the inner fire of a person to burn. On the contrary. It is there as a wood to the fire, to feed it and allow it to overcome the difficulties and the obstacles that anyone faces when following its journey to his heart. One who truly loves must be ready to let his love fly away, and even love others. For when love is born between two hearts, nothing can destroy it, nothing expect jealousy and captivity. Only those two things can kill love, as the fire dies when it is deprived from air", answered the mermaid.
The sailor remained silent for a long moment, and the mermaid too, for she knew she had said everything she had to say, for she knew she had planted the seed of true love in the heart of the lost sailor.
"I will leave you soon", she told him. "As you will leave the ones you love tomorrow. And as you will tomorrow, I feel sad to have to leave you. But to comfort my sadness and yours I will offer you a present before I leave, a present that is the most precious you can offer, a beautiful shared memory full of joy and love".
The sailor was puzzled by the mysterious words of the mermaid, but he felt it was useless to speak and to ask what would be this present.
The night was at it's darkest hour but the moon was full that night, and the clouds that were hiding the shining planet suddenly vanished, as the mermaid started to sing, to sing a song that filled the air and the heart of the sailor with billions of sparkles.
As the mermaid was singing, the sparkles rapidly grew in number, and started to gather around the sailor, soon covering its entire body. Like bees on a blooming tree, dancing to the rhythm of the mermaid's enchanting voice, the sparkles, like a giant swarm of fireflies, started to penetrate the skin of the sailor, spreading a gentle warmth inside his body. He was feeling no fear or pain, his whole mind and spirit being caressed and comforted by the notes of the mermaid's song, even as he noticed his body had started to transform and its shape to change.
As he was now levitating over the waves, glowing and feeling his physical envelope mutating, he suddenly understood what the mermaid wanted to offer him.
He felt his arms shortening and changing into fins, his legs fusing and turning into a tail, and a dorsal fin rising from his back. His skin was now grey and blue. He had become a dolphin, a creature he had always dreamed he would become.
When his transformation finally ended, the glow slowly faded, and he dove straight into the waves, enjoying the sensation of being this prince of the seas, enjoying an incredible feeling of freedom and happiness.
The mermaid then started to swirl around him, caressing his grey an blue skin, inviting him to dance with her. For hours, for what seemed to the sailor like a small eternity, they danced and caressed each other, mixing their hearts and bodies, sharing laughters and staring at each other, like two lovers on their first night of fusion.
Finally, as the first rays of the sun started to pierce the blue waters, the mermaid suddenly stopped dancing. She stared in the deepest of the eyes of the sailor, remaining silent, and suddenly fled away into the deepest of the ocean.
The sailor stayed still, knowing it would be useless to try to follow her. In the deepest of it's heart, he knew he had to let her go, as he had understood that this dance with the mermaid was not meant to last, that he had to return to the surface and to the world of men, as his body was already getting back to its normal shape.
He felt sad though, as he wished that dance would have lasted for ever. But he suddenly felt the sorrow fading. Because he remembered the words of mermaids. Because he knew that dance, the memory of that chase between their two hearts, would love forever in it's heart, helping him to fulfill its fate, to have the courage to spread the message he was given to the world over the surface, to spread a message of love, of what love truly is. Of what it should be.
Once upon a time, there was a sailor. He had travelled all over the seven seas, for a long time, trying to find inner peace, without being able to do so, despite his many, many, travels. Wherever he would go, he would try to settle in a new harbor. But every time, after a while, the sea would call him and he felt the urge to sail away once again. Every time, he would try to fight this urge for as long as he could, but in the end, the call of the sea would win his heart. And he would give up the fight against this call. After many of these fights, which would leave home exhausted and wounded, he one day realized that those battles were useless, that fighting against his heart was nonsense, and was hurting him too much. He realized he shouldn't fight his true nature anymore, that he should accept it and go with the flow of his inner river instead of swimming against it. One of the reasons he was fighting this inner tide was because every time he had to leave a harbor he had lived in for a while, it also meant he had to leave close friends he had made, and also lovers he was so deeply connected too. But every time he had to sacrifice those connections, because of the merciless call of the sea, that was pushing him to go further and further on it's journey, like a drifting boat taken by a current to strong for it to resist. One night, on the eve of the departure from a town that he thought he had settled for a while, he went to the sea, after having drunk so many glasses of whiskey to try to calm the storm of sorrow that was battling his heart. Facing the sea, he started crying and swearing at the sea for the torments she was pouring on his desperate soul. "Why don't you leave me alone ? Why do you always push me to go back on the seas, forcing me to leave those that I love?" he yelled at the sea. "I'm suffering so much because of you, because of the urge for freedom your plant in my heart" he shouted endlessly at the waves. After a while, as waves of tears were flooding his eyes, he heard a voice singing through the deep blue. He first thought he was hallucinating but the singing became closer and closer. As he was searching the darkness of the water, he suddenly saw a woman slowly emerging from the sea.
He was puzzled someone would swim at that time of the night, specially in this bay which was known for its deadly currents. But he soon realized it was not a woman that appeared before him, but a mermaid.
"Calm down your tears dear sailor", she said with the most enchanting voice he had ever heard.
"Thou shall not cry but rejoice for the gift that was given to you to travel the oceans again and again, to create bonds and love with so many creatures of the land", she continued.
-"But I suffer so much every time I have to lean this friends and lovers, and they suffer too from having to let me go", answered the sailor, his voice clogged by tears.
-"Thou shall accept the very nature of yours", she said.
"You were not born to this world to stay in the comfort and living a peaceful life in a forever home. You came to this world as a messenger, whose fate is to spread love and open the hearts to the beauty of life, to wake up the sleeping souls and unlock their soul, so that they can taste the fruits of the tree of life. After you have done so, your soul will always call you to other horizons, to other destinations and to new hearts, as this world is full of people that lost their way and need a light in the darkness of life", she whispered to him, with the most comforting voice.
"They will be sad when you leave, but they also will keep the memory of you in their hearts, and this memory will feed their soul and guide them to feed their inner fire, as it is through this way they will know happiness and inner peace. At least for those who will understand the message you are trying to deliver", she chanted.
"And for thy, you will have to make an important change inside your heart, that of accepting the fate that was given to you, and embrace it. Then will you be given the inner peace you are looking for. It will be your most challenging travel, a lonely expedition deep inside of you, the greatest and more demanding journey a man can be leading. But if you do so, thou shall reach territories few men can have access to, territories where you will access the most precious things in life, the highest level of love, that love that is free from any boundaries, that level of love that will give you the most precious treasure of life, that of an immense ocean of memories with the ones you will have opened the hearts and souls. This will be a painful process every time you have to leave them, and you won't get used to it, but by letting go those souls and set them free of pursuing their own path, thou shall know inner peace, for thou will hence learn what real love is, a love without chains attached, a love that is totally free, a love that doesn't need to keep hearts in a cage."
-"But this is not possible", replied the sailor, "leaving a beloved one is so painful, and what kind of love is it that you have to abandon your beloved one?".
-"You are mistaking when you say you abandon them, for love creates a bond that doesn't know distance or time passing by. For once love is born between two hearts, it never dies even if the two hearts are separated. The only thing that matters is that each heart keeps feeding it's own fire. Love is not there to prevent the inner fire of a person to burn. On the contrary. It is there as a wood to the fire, to feed it and allow it to overcome the difficulties and the obstacles that anyone faces when following its journey to his heart. One who truly loves must be ready to let his love fly away, and even love others. For when love is born between two hearts, nothing can destroy it, nothing expect jealousy and captivity. Only those two things can kill love, as the fire dies when it is deprived from air", answered the mermaid.
The sailor remained silent for a long moment, and the mermaid too, for she knew she had said everything she had to say, for she knew she had planted the seed of true love in the heart of the lost sailor.
"I will leave you soon", she told him. "As you will leave the ones you love tomorrow. And as you will tomorrow, I feel sad to have to leave you. But to comfort my sadness and yours I will offer you a present before I leave, a present that is the most precious you can offer, a beautiful shared memory full of joy and love".
The sailor was puzzled by the mysterious words of the mermaid, but he felt it was useless to speak and to ask what would be this present.
The night was at it's darkest hour but the moon was full that night, and the clouds that were hiding the shining planet suddenly vanished, as the mermaid started to sing, to sing a song that filled the air and the heart of the sailor with billions of sparkles.
As the mermaid was singing, the sparkles rapidly grew in number, and started to gather around the sailor, soon covering its entire body. Like bees on a blooming tree, dancing to the rhythm of the mermaid's enchanting voice, the sparkles, like a giant swarm of fireflies, started to penetrate the skin of the sailor, spreading a gentle warmth inside his body. He was feeling no fear or pain, his whole mind and spirit being caressed and comforted by the notes of the mermaid's song, even as he noticed his body had started to transform and its shape to change.
As he was now levitating over the waves, glowing and feeling his physical envelope mutating, he suddenly understood what the mermaid wanted to offer him.
He felt his arms shortening and changing into fins, his legs fusing and turning into a tail, and a dorsal fin rising from his back. His skin was now grey and blue. He had become a dolphin, a creature he had always dreamed he would become.
When his transformation finally ended, the glow slowly faded, and he dove straight into the waves, enjoying the sensation of being this prince of the seas, enjoying an incredible feeling of freedom and happiness.
The mermaid then started to swirl around him, caressing his grey an blue skin, inviting him to dance with her. For hours, for what seemed to the sailor like a small eternity, they danced and caressed each other, mixing their hearts and bodies, sharing laughters and staring at each other, like two lovers on their first night of fusion.
Finally, as the first rays of the sun started to pierce the blue waters, the mermaid suddenly stopped dancing. She stared in the deepest of the eyes of the sailor, remaining silent, and suddenly fled away into the deepest of the ocean.
The sailor stayed still, knowing it would be useless to try to follow her. In the deepest of it's heart, he knew he had to let her go, as he had understood that this dance with the mermaid was not meant to last, that he had to return to the surface and to the world of men, as his body was already getting back to its normal shape.
He felt sad though, as he wished that dance would have lasted for ever. But he suddenly felt the sorrow fading. Because he remembered the words of mermaids. Because he knew that dance, the memory of that chase between their two hearts, would love forever in it's heart, helping him to fulfill its fate, to have the courage to spread the message he was given to the world over the surface, to spread a message of love, of what love truly is. Of what it should be.
