One hot day in the middle of June…a day…hmmm…much like today, but oh so very very long ago…
Changing Woman went walking…
No no no, not Changing Woman, Buffalo Calf Woman…Buffalo Calf Woman went walking…
No no no, not Buffalo Calf Woman, Green Tara…yes, Green Tara went walking…
No, no, no, I got it all wrong again…Maybe they all went walking. Yes, that is is. They all went walking. And maybe they even took some friends along. They all walked a long way together. They walked so long and so far that they got tired and they forgot why they even wanted to go for a walk at all.
They were hungry and cranky and they looked around and each one thought, “Who are these people and why did I ever want to walk this far with any of them? I must be crazy.”
Perhaps it was Green Tara who saw the blue lake first–it was far away, but cool, oh so cool and inviting. She wanted to swish her pretty green toes in it and feel it swoosh and tumble over her hair. She wanted to swallow the water and turn from Green Tara into Blue Tara. She wanted it so much that all she could think of was falling into that cool blue crystal lake and swimming around forever.
“What are you mooning about, Green Tara (or maybe they called her Buffalo Calf Woman or maybe some other equally strong wonderful goddess-like name)?”
They really didn’t need her to answer because they all could see that she was staring down at the most cool beautiful inviting blue lake they had ever seen. And even though it was Green Tara’s idea… or Changing Woman’s…or maybe Buffalo Calf Woman’s…or, well, whichever great goddess had the idea first, it made no difference to any of them. They all had the idea all at the same time as far as they were concerned and they each desired above all else to be the first to swim in that amazingly beautiful cool blue water.
So they started to push each other, and they started to shove each other, and they stared to step on each other’s small pretty toes. And as they did this, suddenly, out of nowhere, a great wind came up and blew around them. It whipped their dresses. It spun them around. They grabbed for each other and couldn’t get a grip. They cried and begged the wind to stop. But the more they begged, the more the wind blew.
And, wheeeeee, before they could say “We really are sorry, we were only kidding. We won’t let mean greedy feelings get in the way of our friendships ever again,” the wind spun or flung or threw them…
One of them…or all of them…or maybe none of them…
There goes that story again, escaping ahead of me. I really don’t know WHAT went over the edge, but Something did. So since I am telling this story, I am going to say that, whatever went over , it was, at the very least, a floating delicate flowery form that got flung toward the distant blue lake…or river…or…oops…ocean…
That’s what it was. It was an ocean. That’s what lay below.
So Changing Woman fell … Or Green Tara fell… or Buffalo Calf Woman… or, hmmm, yes, something else fell…what was it, really?…maybe…maybe…a great, a massive, a pink-and-apple-green, beautiful-beyond-compare, adventurous…Fish! Yes, that’s it! A Fish! The first Fish. A Fish-From-The-Sky who really was a goddess in disguise.
So that Fish fell down and its tail whipped so hard as it cut the air, and its fins moved so fiercely as it dropped, that it went deep and deep and deeper still. And when it reached the bottom, it flew back up again. And with it came half the water of this strange new world. And the water went so high that it got stuck in the sky and didn’t fall back to the earth again. And where the water had been, there now was rock AND some very surprised albino swimmers who didn’t know what to do with the raw bright light all around.
“Fish, what have you done to us?” they cried.
“I haven’t done anything. And I am not a Fish,” the Fish said. “At least…I…er… well… I…”
The Fish looked as the pink and green scales. The Fish looked at where it once had feet. The Fish looked at where it once had arms.
“Oh no,” the Fish said. “I want to go home. There is too much water here and I don’t like it at all.”
“There is not enough water here,” said the albino swimmers who could not swim any more, “and We don’t like it at all. You should go away. Get out of here. Go home. ”
Maybe because it was June… Maybe because it was hot… Maybe because a Fish who once had been a goddess could no longer think a single clear thought…
Whatever the reason, the Fish-From-The-Sky looked up and the Fish-From-The-Sky looked down. It saw water above and water below. And the water felt good.
“I AM home,” the Goddess-Turned-Fish said to whatever was listening.
But just as the words left the mouth of this newly arrived traveller, just as it decided it did not want to be any place else but HERE, there came another HUGE splash.
“Oh no, Green Tara, are you HERE too?”
“I am…and Quin Yin is right behind me. We are going to have SO much fun.”
“You think we can do better this time?” asked the Fish.
“Why? This is only a story, isn’t it?” answered Green Tara. “We can do whatever we want.”
“Maybe this time, you think we’ll get it right?” the Fish asked again.
“Oh honey, not us! Them.” Green Tara pointed a fin in the direction of the high-and-dry albino swimmers who were swimmers no longer. “We’re just visiting here.”
And so together they rode with the wave, down down down, and then back up again.
And it was fun… At least most of it.
…Because this great blue ocean wasn’t their job to take care of any way, and after all, it was only a story… Wasn’t it?
What a fun story! Love the way Mary plays with the reader.