Taking The World On With A Smile!

Caution: Some of the images contained in this post may be considered disturbing.

Ever find yourself in a situation where you feel like a “fish out of water?”

Ever wake up in the morning to find your fish – out – of- water?

As a mother, my nature is to nurture. Once you have a child and start taking care of it, something happens within you and you start taking care of EVERYTHING that comes into your life or crosses your path; extended family members, friends, other people’s kids, pets and plants included. You can’t help it. Unfortunately for me, while taking care of my children and other human beings has always come easily & naturally, the taking care of plants and animals, not-so-much. Last winter however, when we moved into our new place, a neighbor welcomed us with a beautiful poinsettia plant that regardless of any amount of neglect I seamlessly bestowed upon it, it not only thrived but has managed to survive, to this very day. It’s even budding new red leaves.

Astonishing!

So, when my daughter won two gold-fish at the County Fair last August, thrilled with both her achievement and the notion of finally having a pet, I had hope and thought, why not? Maybe like the rest of my life, I’m headed in a different direction here. We’ll give it a try and see what happens I told her. Being reasonably skeptical however, we hesitated to name them, referring to them only as “Fish 1” and “Fish 2” (just-in-case ) and never quite knowing exactly which fish was which. Not surprisingly, about a month later we woke up to find a pair of floaters in the fishbowl. As I set about the business of transferring Fish 1 and Fish 2 to their final flushing resting bowl, I caught a faint fin-wiggle out of the corner of my eye. Upon closer examination I could see Fish 1 was actually still alive! Sure enough, after being put into a small holding tank and fed, he began to perk up and swim again.

Interesting. I thought.

Sometime in December however, again, I woke to find a barely breathing “Fish” (which is what we were now lovingly referring to him as),  struggling to stay alive. Oddly, again, I put him in our small holding tank, fed him and voila! He was back to his perky self in no time and carefully transferred back into his fishbowl.

If cats have nine lives, how many lives do fish have?

Strange. I thought.

Alas, a few weeks ago, I woke to find an empty fish bowl. Gone, he was. Indeed, Fish, it turned out was out of water! Seriously, sometime during the night, Fish had somehow jumped out of his fishbowl and landed in the kitchen sink! (I know, EW!)

True story. And dead he was. Truly.

Or  so  I  thought.

I left Fish in the sink. This was something I thought Hannah had to see for herself. A few hours later, when she got up and after delivering the sad news, in ceremonious fashion, I awkwardly scooped up Fish in his little net and quickly tossed him into the big bowl that would ultimately carry him to fish-heaven, if you will.

Is there anything you want to say before we flush him Hannah? I asked.

She is after all, such a dramatic sensitive child.

She nodded negatively, peered into the big bowl, put her hand on the lever and SCREAMED…

Mom! Quick! Get the food I think he’s still alive!

Disturbing Image #1 ~ Fish & food in the big bowl.

Instead of full-on-mouth-to-mouth, I did what she recommended and sprinkled some food into the bowl. Why? I have no idea but she was right and there was movement. You could see the ever-so-slightly wiggle (again) of our Fish’s fin and his teeny, tiny black eyes peering up from the big bowl.

Indeed, Fish was alive! Again.

Disturbing Image #2 ~ Indeed, Fish is alive.

For a third time, Fish had been snatched from the jaws of death, quite possibly even the jaws of JAWS,  not to mention a fatal flush. And once again, we placed him into the now, “magical holding tank of LIFE”…..

Disturbing Image #3 ~ Putting the net in the toilet to retrieve Fish. Ugh!

….where amazingly, Fish instantly, began to swim! Again.

Good God! I thought, I couldn’t kill this fish if I tried!

Somewhat Disturbing Image #4 ~ Fish alive again!

I consider myself  to be more of a spiritual rather than a religious person. Clearly, there is a greater power at work here.

Early on in motherhood, you quickly learn not to question certain things. Count your blessings and be grateful. You take the inexplicable and otherwise bizarre happenings in stride and simply say,

Yep, that seems about right.

Bizarre & Disturbing Image #5 ~ Fish, alive, yet-again and back in his fishbowl.

Good night, Fish.