Go with the flow

"If you were a fish, what fish would you be?"

Without missing a beat, he said "An electric eel --- I glow in the DARK, baby!"

And zipping past me with a Cheshire cat grin, I saw an electric eel swim past me, smiling as he went. That's right - he was smiling. He was indeed the HAPPIEST eel you've ever seen in your life. He was flashing neon blue in zaps and flashes. That was the color of his electricity.

He was zipping and zooming! Wild and free and in joy-filled exuberance like a child bursting onto the playground. He was swimming ocean deep in a sea of love!

Then he turned the tables on me. "What kind of fish would YOU be?" he asked.

Startled, my first thought was -- I'm not even a fish at all. Maybe a piece of driftwood. But then I thought about how he said I was always talking bad about myself and how 'unattractive' that was. That stung; but he was right.

So I tried to think of a kind of LIVING thing that was barely there, and lived in the water.

Ah HA! A BARNACLE! They ARE alive, but....they're not going anywhere. That was me.

I replied, "Oh, I'm not even a fish! I'm a.... a... barnacle. On the underside of a raft. On Gilligan's Island. It's been a LONG time since I've 'seen the ocean'...."

He laughed uproariously! Loving my sense of humor. And he knew it was a struggle and stretch to think of myself in a positive way - even that such an exaggerated example was a stretch for me. For normally, I was putting myself down. Way down.

As I watched him swim to his heart's delight, I sighed and thought out loud, "I sure would love to swim WITH you in that water. In those depths. Joyful like you. But....(it'll never happen...)."

All at once, he had a solution!

I saw myself in a huge, wide and swift current --- the EAC! The Eastern Australia Current! Just like in the movie "Finding Nemo". And he said "You're a seaturtle. Go with the flow! Go to the depths! Feel the speed, feel the motion -- GO with it! Ride the current!"

And I saw myself -- a huge sea turtle hurtling along.....not flapping and straining to swim fast. No - I was BEING CARRIED ALONG. No strain at all. I just had to trust the current, and then get off of it where I needed to.

"REMEMBER!" he sternly emphasized, "You're a SEA turtle, not a LAND tortoise; a SEA TURTLE!"

"Right!" I replied with confidence I mustered up for the moment.

Maybe being a sea turtle isn't that hard. I CAN swim to awesome depths and go far, far away. If I just get in the current and trust myself to the journey, and .... go with the flow.