You are a fish.
You heard me. A fish. You may not realize it, you may not want to accept it, but you are a fish. You swim around every day, doing your thing, pretending that you aren't surrounded by the ocean, that water doesn't surround you at every moment of every day, when really you are just a finned creature floating through the infinite ocean.
As you swim through your world, you notice the seaweed and beautiful coral reefs. You do your best to avoid the sharks and their sharp teeth. You swim around, trying to get a bite of the algae that floats beside you. You swim in school and beyond. And to you, this is what is real.
But what you don't realize is that all those bright colors, that algae, that shark, are all simply products of the water that surrounds you. That without the water, you and they would not exist. You breathe the water, you drink the water, you eat the water. The water is just as much a part of you as your fins and scales.
But who can really blame you? The water, clear and impossible to see, has been a part of your life since you were born. How could you even know it was there unless someone told you?
And if they told you, would you believe them? "What? Water? What's that? What's this wetness you speak of? I don't see anything. I don't feel anything," you would probably say, bubbles coming from your mouth.
"Believe!" he might say.
"I don't even know you!"
And so on.
You go about your life. Eating algae. Hanging out in your school. Running away from sharks. The usual.
Your fins start to get tired, though. Your tiny little fish brain feels like it has potential for so much more. Ever since that guy came to you, you start to wonder. Maybe there's more to life? Maybe algae isn't all there is?
And so you start swimming with some different schools. Checking out different streams of thought. And you start to realize there's a whole ocean out there that you never knew about. There are stingrays, whales, kelp and those cool glow-in-the-dark fish. Who ever knew the ocean could be so full of life?
Eventually, though, all the colors seem to blend together. Soon, you've seen every fish there is to see, every piece of seaweed that floats in the ocean. You keep wanting more, but that little brain of yours never seems to fill. What's the deal?
And then that annoying fish returns.
"Believe!" The call comes out like a dolphin's whistle.
For just a moment, a moment of weakness (or is it strength?), you give in. You believe for just a second. And instead of blowing bubbles at him, you ask him a question.
"What is water?"
His mouth opens and curves in what can only be interpreted as a fish smiling.
"Do you know that invisible force that moves you when you are swimming? You know that invisible substance you inhale through your gills? Did you ever stop to think about what's in your body? What keeps you alive and splashing?"
Suddenly it's clear to you. All this time, you've been looking outside. You've noticed the exciting differences of the world. And you didn't realize there's something that keeps everything alive. Something that connects all beings in the ocean, giving them their life and vitality. You didn't stop for a moment and look within.
When, for one moment, we allow ourselves to open our eyes and see beyond the colors to see the invisible, we are opening the door to reality. The reality that in the end, even we are a part of the ocean, one with it and totally connected to it.
Just open your gills and spread your fins.
