the mermaid



One of Isa Maria's beautiful mermaid paintings




The Mermaid

A mermaid found a swimming lad,
Picked him for her own,
Pressed her body to his body,
Laughed; and plunging down
Forgot in cruel happiness
That even lovers drown.


~William Butler Yeats

 
 
I love this quote from Yeats, and I love the book that I'm reading on a daily basis.  Those of you who know me well won't be surprised to know that I have jumped ahead a couple of days and am already on August 2nd.  Here is a passage worth sharing...
 
We want so badly to share our innermost experience with our loved ones, but often, like the mermaid, we forget that not everyone can go where we go.  Indeed, we all share this mysterious fact - that no one else can go into our depth completely.  We must travel there alone.  It is where we commune with God.
 
The lad can visit the mermaid's depth, but can't live there or he will drown.  And the mermaid can visit the lad's life on land, but can't stay there or she will suffocate.  We must, each of us, return to our inmost element in order to survive.  Frequently, we judge each other for not coming along, even take such an inability as rejection, when in fact, if we are kept out of our native element too long, we will suffocate or drown.
 
The living terrain of relationship actually exists in the overlap of our inmost natures.  The mermaid and lad return to embrace where the deep and air meet.  It is the mermaid's responsibility of love to bring her treasures to the surface where they can be shared, and the lad's obligation to rinse his treasures in their common surf.  In this way, every authentic relationship becomes a home where we return from our solitary communions with God.
 
On land or at sea, entangled in community of independent in isolation, we all share this essential aloneness.  And in the journey between the depths and heights that nourish our souls and the touch of others that keeps us sane, we are humbled into the miracle of love.
 
Love it!