A Mermaid’s Story Retold

I have always been drawn to the ocean. There is vast beauty in the shades of blue, green and every colour in between. The currents can be as gentle as a whisper or as fierce as a volcano. The sea breeze brushes away cobwebs of my mind and brings new life. There is simple joy of collecting seashells and pebbles on a beach and on occasion finding a starfish. Like the little mermaid I felt drawn to another world. The world I imagined was deep within the sea. Its story conjured up ideas of living in a temple and exploring the ancient lands with the creatures in the sea. I have since come to discover a new meaning from my childhood connection to the mermaid story and the sea. I feel a belonging with the ocean, and it is from this place that I have reinvented the mermaid story. In my story there is a shift towards taking responsibility and care for our environment, and to protect the sea and all the creatures who live within in it. There is an emphasis on the power of an individual to influence the collective. There is a move away from the stereotypical roles given to gender, and instead there is a focus on the empowerment of the human spirit. I want this story to inspire the imagination of children and adults. I want people to believe that they too can listen and tell stories whispered to them from the sea. Children have a sense of wonder in the beauty and simplicity of the world around us. They can teach grownups what it means to be present and look after the earth we inhabit. I hope this story speaks to you as much as it does to me.

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There are mysteries in the sea of stories untold. Many are buried deep in the seabed, some are in the waves of the ocean, the breeze of the wind, the pebbles and shells, and others are contained within the sea creatures themselves. This is one of those stories. No one knows how this story came to be and there is a whisper amongst the sea and the land, that it as old as time itself. This story comes from the heart of the ocean.

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Once upon a time, the sea was the source of the world’s wisdom. When the sea breathed its first breath, it shook the earth and merfolk were formed. The sea thrived and new life birthed. The merpeople built underwater cities and were prosperous. They celebrated and enjoyed the cycles and rhythms of nature deep within the sea. Over time humans came to reside on the land and the sea population diminished. There was growing concern about the dwindling resources and the merfolk elders consulted the ocean. There was a prophesy in the cities deep in the ocean about a merperson who would bridge the divide between land and sea. This merperson would come from the waves and the dust of the sand. Over time the prophesy became diluted, and the merfolk elders presumed that this merperson would instead be born from the royal lineage of merfolk. So, they segregated the royal merfolk from the rest of the population to focus on fulfilling this duty. Times were hard for the merfolk, and they needed this merperson to restore the sea to its rightful place.

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Many years later the prophesy became forgotten, and the merfolk population dwindled. On the boundaries of the merfolk palace there was an outcast merperson of low rank. They were not birthed in a regal oyster or given a pearl to add to their crown. They were born on the seabed and their mother sang her last song as she took her last breath. This merperson did not have any other family and was instead raised by the creatures of the sea and the earth. They were loved by the dolphins and would dance and laugh and swim with a lightness of spirit. They cared for both the land and the earth. This merperson collected shells and books and would watch sailors and boats pass by. They would protect both humans and sea creatures and were a joy to be around.

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A human fell into the sea and the merperson sang their healing song and for a moment the human met the merperson's eyes. The human was transfixed, and spell bound. Once the human was safely on dry land, they believed they were disorientated and that this magical merperson, was of myth and fairy tale. The human travelled far and wide to find the merperson and journeyed to the bottom on the sea. All the while this merperson watched mesmerised from a distance.

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Some time later, as the sun glistened on the ocean, the prophesy that had long been foretold began to tick into motion. Humans did not respect the sea; they polluted the sacred waters deep within their nature and poisoned the very ground they touched. The merperson travelled the depths of the sea and went in their transformed human form on the land. The merperson endured trials and tribulations on both sea and land and had to pass tests of all kinds. They were not interested in the way the human’s dressed but in how their hearts were defined. The merperson searched the lands for people who would listen. They would sit at the shore and sing their heart’s melody. They would dance with the waves and the shimmering moon. The human whom the merperson saved heard the song and fell in love once again. The merperson and human worked together to save the land. They would meet in the light of the full moon and repair and heal the sea, land, shore, and sand.

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One day the merperson was seen stepping out of the waters transforming into their human form by those who were part of the darkness. The people trapped the merperson and put them in a cage for show. The darkness swept the land and chained the merperson’s beloved. The merperson was not imprisoned like they thought but used their song to redefine their evil intent. At first the people of the land ignored the merperson’s cries to return to the way of the sea and the land. The humans had built walls so high that they could not see the beauty within the depths of nature. They were pulled by strings controlled by the spirit of darkness that consumed the land. Soon enough human hearts had heard the merperson’s song and their hearts wept in the land. There was a great revival and an uprising against the darkness. The veil had been torn and the merperson’s glass cage shattered and out they stepped radiating in light. The people stepped away transfixed by the merperson’s gaze. The chains binding the merperson’s beloved broke in the wake of this freedom. The merperson reunited with their beloved and they ruled both the sea and the land. Through the merperson’s light and being the human was transformed into a merperson to reign alongside. There was unity between the ocean and the earth.

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You see, the merperson did not go on land to be transformed but instead came to change the land. The merperson was not tormented by a monstrous sea creature, instead they had to battle with the darkness of the people. The gates of the earth would not open for them, and they had to fight within themselves for their truth to be heard. The merperson was the bringer of light and the source of life. They did not have to choose between being in their merperson or human form. They did not need to outsource their power. They always had the magic within them to transform at will into both, and in turn save both sea and land.

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There are many untold stories from the expansive ocean. From the rock pools full of life, the crabs on the shore, the fish in the sea tickling your feet, the song of a seagull, the sea urchins, and starfish. They all have a story and connection with life. Next time you pick up a shell, find a pebble on the beach, swim in the ocean with the sea creatures or watch the tide from the shore, listen to the whispers of the story that the ocean is longing to tell.

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P.S. story to be continued, by you…

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