Waterfalls

Today the grief slapped me up the side of the head.  I can't seem to stop crying.  Maybe it's the rain.  Maybe it's the full moon.  Maybe it was Grace the island postmistress who thanked me for the most moving memorial service she'd ever been to, and for lending my dad to the islanders for the last few years.  "You were lucky to have a dad like that," she said over the post office counter.  "And he was lucky to have you. I've never seen love like that between a daughter and father before."

Ah.   Breathe deeply and flow.  "And watch out for waterfalls," I hear Sister Sophia Mermaid whispering in my ear.

Comments

[Kim]

Blessings, blessings, blessings. And big watery and earthy hugs. I hope you don't mind that I put in a scene from Church of the Old Mermaids for you, but as we've said, the Old Mermaids are beyond me, and I thought this scene might speak to you. Reading your post I thought about tears. Remember what Grand Mother Yemaya said, "Laugh or weep. We swim in your tears."

(Some quick background: Myla picks up trash in the wash behind the Old Mermaid Sanctuary and "sells" it as treasure at the Church of the Old Mermaids. Each item is just what a person needs and it comes with a story. I offer you this same bottle that Myla offers to Pietra.)

Myla picked up a tall empty clear bottle.

“Well, you might try this one,” Myla said. “I found it near where the old kitchen used to be in the Old Mermaid Sanctuary. I can’t be certain, but I believe this was the one that used to have a place on the window sill in the kitchen. It had a teardrop-shaped stopper. Oh, it was beautiful, that top, but it was off as often as it was on because you’ll never believe what precious liquid was contained in this bottle.”

Pietra said, “I would if you tell me it was so.”

“Ahhh, well, no one can know for sure, but they say it was filled with water from the Old Sea where the Old Mermaids made their home before it dried up. And before it all went away, Sister Bridget Mermaid had the presence of mind to fill a couple of empty bottles they found along the shore with sea water. This one they put in the kitchen. Sometimes when the Old Mermaids were aching for the Old Sea, they came into the kitchen to gaze at the bottle, sometimes hold it. When the longing became too much, they took the stopper off and smelled the sea and remembered their lost friends and the life they had had to leave behind. They would even dab a drop behind their ears and on their wrists, as though it were perfume, and of course, it was, to them. Sometimes their grief overwhelmed them and they wept as they held the open bottle. That was why the bottle remained full for a long time, no matter how often they used it or how much time went by.”

“Why?” Pietra asked. By now, two women and a man had walked up to the table and were listening.

“Because the tears of the Old Mermaids fell into the bottle and kept it full,” Myla said. “And no one ever knew the difference because Old Mermaid tears are really sea water. Gradually the Old Mermaids realized they carried the Old Sea within them, always, just as you and I do. Did you ever notice when you cry, the grief begins to subside once you taste your own tears? That’s because that sea water reminds the deepest truest part of you that you are always home, you are always with yourself, and that truth is comforting, even in the darkest times, even when you feel as though you are far from home, the way the Old Mermaids felt.”

[Joanna]

Kim, this is beautiful, and brilliant, and touches me in a place deep inside that I can't even begin to describe. How is this act of magic happening, that you are diving down deep and bringing up this ancient wisdom in the guise of a novel? Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Nora]

The cure for anything is salt water ~ sweat, tears or the sea. Isak Dinesen

Let it flow siren sistah...at the waterfall right next to you...
Nora

[Andy]

What blessings can be found in the words of others at times like this. What a lovely gift from that lady. x