TATIANA
Tatiana was the most beautiful mermaid in the ocean.
Her long red tail was the envy of both the other mermaids and fishes in the sea. Her scales were soft and a creamy green, and her eyes were a brilliant blue. Her beautiful soul was legendary amongst all the creatures of the sea.
Tatiana sang like an angel, her soft melodious voice soothing to most species. She especially like to sing on hot summer nights, while lying amongst the cool rocks. She sang to wayward sailors, guiding their lost ships back to port. She mesmerized many a sea captain with her lilting arias and sensuous longings for a mate she would never find.
For she had been banished from her home in the ocean, forever doomed to wander throughout the seas of the earth. She was a mermaid without a home because she had revealed the unthinkable.
Tatiana didn't know how to swim.
It was a secret she had kept for many years, telling no one but the snails and the goldfish. They kept her secret and alerted her to when someone was close by. She would duck her head under the water and look like she was just coming up from a romp down below. But as she got older, she got tired. She was tired of the lies, tired of the pretense.
Most of all, she was tired of lying to herself.
Is there no one who can teach me to swim? she cried out the night of her confession to the great Mother Mermaid.
How can you not know how to swim? Mother Mermaid screamed How? You are a mermaid, you are born to swim!! You are a disgrace, you must leave and never come back!
And so Tatiana stole away like a thief in the night, ashamed of her secret and sleeping on sand banks during the day, floating on lily pads during the evening.
She floated that way for many years, through many seasons and many towns. Always beautiful and loving she would make friends in one town or another and would stay until her secret was found out once again. Oh the shame, oh the pity, the beautiful mermaid Tatiana can not swim! they would cry in disbelief, and she would sneak off yet again. She could not bear to be pitied.
Until one day she came upon Nathaniel.
Nathaniel was a lone wolf who could swim like a fish, but couldn't sing a note. Wolves were known to howl at the moon, but he couldn't do that either. He was tone deaf. His voice always sounded like a croak of a frog, instead of the strong, lone timbre of that of his brothers.
He was so distraught he tried to drown himself in the ocean. He couldn't drown however, because he was such a good swimmer.
And so one evening he came upon Tatiana as she was laying amongst the rocks. She sang a sad, tortuous melody of long lost love and hopeless adoration.
His heart was moved so that he forgot about his plan to end his life. He fell immediately in love with the beautiful mermaid and had planned to tell her so. But he couldn't find the words.
They had shared all this with me as Riley and I were taking our evening walk along the shoreline of the Lake. They had travelled together for many months, talking and laughing, helping each other with their shortcomings.
Where Tatiana could not venture out, Nathaniel would swim to retrieve.
Where Nathaniel could not put into song, Tatiana would sing for him.
They filled the gaps of each other's hearts, but had never known true joy.
I asked them if they had ever watched a sunrise together.
No! they both answered, surprised at what was obviously a profound realization on both their parts.
Watch a sunrise together, I told them. It will change your life.
And so the last I heard, Tatiana and Nathaniel watch the sunrise every morning and the sunset every evening, no matter what port they are in, no matter what the weather. They watch them in blizzards and in heat waves, in monsoons and hurricanes, holding on to each other and never tiring of the feelings it releases within their hearts. The sunrise gives them the courage to face their trials and tribulations, to work around their shortcomings, and to embrace their individuality. The sunsets assure them they have lived yet another day, and are thankful for the many blessings they experienced together. If they are ever apart, they still watch the sun rise or set as if they were together - because it's the very same sun for both of them, as it is for us all.
Watch a sunrise with someone you love. It will change your life.
