There is an old selkie story (a selkie is a mermaid, not to be confused with a kelpie, which is a horse) and it goes something like this: Once there was a small time fisherman who was having a little difficulty. The big timers, the corporate dredgers, were over fishing the stock and he was struggling. To make matters worse, the dredgers cut his nets and generally made life difficult for him. On one such day, with his nets in shreds floating amidst a mess of discarded fish deemed too small by the dredger, he decided to head back to the harbour. He'd had enough of it all. But on pulling in his empty nets, he heard a baby crying, and there, all tangled up was an infant mermaid. So the fisherman rescued her and took her back out to sea, returning her to where she could be safely collected by her own people. He soon forgot all about it and then six years later, when the fisherman was back on the same stretch of water, still trying to scratch a living, he was approached by a beautiful selkie and her now thriving daughter. The beautiful selkie spoke to him in her lilting song voice, 'Because of your actions these past six years away,' the mermaid sang, 'I will grant you one wish. Just one wish. Name the wish and it will be yours. It will be granted true.' The fisherman looked over at the huge dredgers and then down at his own empty nets, and then very quietly he said to the beautiful selkie, 'My wish is that your child is safe always.' This (above) is my favourite picture sequence with my daughter Abbi. We were in the kitchen just fooling around. Now she is in Oklahoma and having the time of her life; you know what I wish for and not just for her...
