SELF
3 Magic Personal Development Tips From the Mermaid Who Climbed a Tree
Being your unique you is all there is
We are in Ibiza for some change-making projects and stay with this inspiring couple iCanay and Rudy de Waele, two super-bright daughters and two lovable dogs. The girls' names are Mey and Mia. They are 9 and 8 years old.
Early morning, while I write this, the dogs bark at me. They wanna be with their names in this story too. Sunny and Shine. They might get their own story later. They definitely deserve one.
We are in the car when Mey asks me: “Can you tell us a story?” Her mother told her I’m a storyteller and a writer. So, she chooses 3 words the story has to be created with:
- Tree
- Castle
- 9
And my brain goes in overdrive. I just picture this castle by the sea. It’s huge. A little intimidating even. At the top, a canon peeks through the parapet. Ready to shoot if anybody dares to come close.
The castle has a courtyard and there a tree stands tall. It’s an old oak. A real tree-climber tree with low branches. I just know this tree is a survivor. His roots are covered with asphalt to keep the surroundings clean for humans. Every wildness of soils and souls is being smothered.
The oak is glad he can breathe with his branches and leaves. But he’s hungry all the time. No organic matter to feed his roots. He feels his energy withering away slowly. Day by day by day.
And with that image in my mind, my story starts.
The Mermaid Who Climbed a Tree
It’s 2021 and in Ibiza, by the sea, a mermaid lives in a castle. Her name is Anna and she’s very intelligent. Her fin is the color of yummy honey. And her hair is dark and wavey, like the sea at night.
And her eyes? They are observing sharply. When you look into their turquoise depth, you might just drown.
She’s happy enough alright. But her husband keeps nagging her about one thing every day. He says: “You have to fit in, my dear. You have to prove that you’re human enough to live on this island.”
So, every day she’s picking her brain, thinking, how can I prove that? How on earth can I prove that? Sometimes she even screams it out loud to him.
“How can I prove that I’m human when I’m a mermaid?”
And one day, he gives her the answer in the form of a challenge. He says: “Darling, it might be a good idea to learn how to climb the tree in the courtyard. When you are at the top of the tree, you’ve proven you’re human.”
Every day after that, she’s practicing climbing the tree. And the tree tries to help her along. “I’m an easy tree to climb,” he says to her. “Look, this branch can be the first one to step on. And then you go here. And there. My branches will hold you. Don’t have fear. I’m supporting your challenge if climbing me is what you really want to do.”
She tries it time after time. But her fin is slippery and her arms are not strong enough to hold her body upright in this climate with strong gravity. In the water, her body is light and flexible. But on land, she feels clumsy and out of her depth.
Weeks go by. She asks her girlfriends for help and they come up with some ideas, but none of them work. She keeps sliding down the tree, hurting her fin and her arms. One day, she makes it to the second branch but that’s still a long way from the top.
After two weeks of intense trying, she’s about to give up. She’s sitting at the foot of the oak. Her eyes are closed. Her back is leaning against his rough bark. “I’m just gonna tell him he has to accept me the way I am,” she says to her friend the oak. “It’s just stupid, I cannot climb you in a million years!”
She feels the tree is smiling broadly. And exactly at that moment, the magic happens. On her closed eyelids she sees a number. It’s the number 3. And she remembers. She vividly remembers.
In Celtic mythology, the number 3 is the Triquetra, the Trinity. It’s a sacred number with huge powers. Number 9, however, is even more powerful. Because it’s 3 x 3.
While she’s sitting at the foot of the tree with her eyes closed, she feels the number 3 and the number 9 rising within her. She feels the smiling tree filling up her lungs and her fin and her mind. Her ears hear birds chattering away in the branches of the oak.
When she opens her eyes, she sees 9 birds sitting on the branches of the tree. “Climbing a tree is not too hard,” they say to her. “Easy peasy. We can help you.”
And they pick her up with their beaks, careful not to hurt her sensitive fin, and they put her down at one of the top branches.
“Oh my goodness, this is such fun!” LOL. “I can see the sea so clearly now,” Anna shouts.
And with that sight of the sea, a fierce longing enters her body. She’s just not made for land. She’s made for the ocean. She needs flow and waves and fish to play with. Salty tears flush down her cheeks. The birds have stopped chattering.
Silently, with great respect for her grief, the birds pick her up again and put her down next to the tree’s trunk.
She still snivels a bit when she thanks her small birdy friends and her tall friend, the oak. “I couldn’t have done this without you, my friends. But I need to leave you and go back to the ocean, where I belong. It’s so clear to me now.”
She enters the castle, picks up a few memorable belongings, and enters the sea from the north side of the island. On a sunny day, if you watch closely, you can see her swimming. She’s LOL. Playing with the dolphins. And being oh, so wonderfully happy! She’s back where she belongs.
No need for climbing trees here.
Stories of the Earth
Mey, and the other 4 people in the car with me, listen intensely to this story that I just plucked out of thin air. That’s what Stories of the Earth do. They enter my brain and flow out of my mouth into somebody’s ear or out of my fingers onto the keyboard and into the universe.
Mey asks: “What happened to the husband?”
And her mother says wisely and fiercely: “She divorced him. Of course! What man would ask a woman to be something she’s not?”
And we all laugh. This is our spirit, these days. Going deep. Going full flow. Changing the narrative and having so much fun together doing it.
What can you learn from this story?
- Never try to be someone you’re not. You have a role in life and you aren’t meant to be everything to everyone. If you cannot climb a tree, just do something else
- Never ask anyone else to be someone they are not. Choose the people you are with and flow with those choices. Some people might stay long on your path, some people might just come for a short visit. It’s your path, your journey in life
- Your body and your longing are your compasses. Do what makes your heart sing. Follow the signs. And learn from every happening in your life. It’s never too late to make different choices. You are in the driver’s seat.
Thank you, Arya Mey Ture (9), for writing this story with me :)
Want to connect? You can find me somewhere on our beautiful planet, with my hands in the soil and my eyes gazing at moonshots and quantum leaps. Or find me via Linktree.
© Désirée Driesenaar