Lessons From a Fish
Do you ever wish you were a fish? Like you just wanna swim around all day in the beautiful turquoise waters of the Caribbean and spend most of the day exploring magnificent coral reefs? Sometimes I feel like the fish have just got it all figured out and maybe their smartest move yet was to not speak human speak! Like we are basically their Netflix and they binge watch us, eating snacks and hysterically laughing at how insane we all are, running around all day, doing jobs we don’t like, being in relationships we don’t like, idolizing green pieces of paper, then doing drugs and drinking because we don’t like our jobs and our relationships and we can never get enough green paper!
You are beautiful, You are whole, You are Enough
Did you ever wonder what the fish would tell us if they could? I think they would totally school us! (that was my attempt at a joke, so this is your signal to laugh now.)
Here are lessons from a fish:
- Explore. For goodness sake, DO NOT LIVE IN A FISHBOWL! You are not bound to a particular pond, river, or lake. DO NOT stay in the same alcove at the same location of your birth, surrounded by the same fish family. There’s a grand beautiful ocean out there, go see it. And yes, it will be a little scary at first, because it’s the unknown, but that’s the point, your mind can only expand, if YOU expand your experience.
- Don’t take the bait. It might seem like an easy meal, but I promise you, it will cause you MUCH bigger problems if you bite. The quick fixes, the easy way out, and get rich quick mentalities will get you in major trouble and it’s only a matter of time until you become someone else’s dinner. Don’t be someone else’s dinner, there’s plenty of vegetation out there, no one has to die (and yes that was my sneak attack at promoting a plant based diet).
- Bigger does not equal better. Well maybe when I’m your meal it does, but that’s besides the point here. No matter the size, we all have our fair share of obstacles, and they are really NOT comparable, so stop trying to compare yourselves with each other. Each fish is unique and beautiful in it’s own right, each fish has different strengths and weaknesses, some of us are fast and stealthy, some of us are slow, steady, and observant, some of us are the perfect camouflage with our surroundings…..just like you humans, you are ALL important, but not more important than anyone else.
- There are plenty of fish in the sea. This is actually true. And there’s more than just fish,there are turtles and otters and octopus and seals and polar bears and walrus and sea lions and manatee! Surround yourself with creatures that lift you up, that that raise the bar, that challenge you and most importantly, that love you not for what you have, but for who you are.
- And finally, please, please, please stop using the metaphor “if you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime.” It’s really messing with our mojo! It’s a great message, we whole heartedly agree, embrace new skill sets, gift yourself with learning HOW, but we think it’s time for another species to take the rap.
Take these lessons back out into the world with you because while you have certainly entertained us, we have seen EVERY SINGLE episode, twice, and we are ready for your inspirational sequel where you school us fish on how to FLY.
