Old Mermaids School of Telling Tales & Finding Art: Second Night

We ate storytelling soup—I can't be sure, but I believe the original recipe for this soup came from Sister Ruby Rosarita Mermaid—and we talked about the Old Mermaids and where they came from. I said they came to me last winter, but I feel as though they've been around forever. I liked the way they solved problems, I told them. I liked the way they lived in beauty.

We lit the storytelling candle. This time is was a wax turkey made by our local beekeeper friend, Paul. Then we went on a journey to Water. Afterward, we each told a tale of water: about the sacred spring in Latvia that healed a leg swollen from a bug bite, about the flood of 1996, about rolling around on a wet sandy beach, about seeing stars in the water and feeling as though they could be scooped right out of the water, about floods and rapids and living foam. Later, the stories came. Each person had a different style. Some stories were long, some were funny, some moving. One story was the weft, the next one the warp. We were weaving, weaving, weaving our lives together. We were learning to tell stories, and we were learning to listen.

That is the Old Mermaid way.

Blessed sea!