Today’s story is about stolen companionship, thwarted identity, longing, and eventually freedom.
Audio Recording
Story Credit
The Woman of the Sea retold by Helen Waddell From Northern Lights: Legends, Sagas and Folk Tales [Paperback] Crossley–Holland, Kevin (Ed); Published by London, UK: Faber & Faber, 1987
For Your Contemplation
Imagine you are all the elements in this story. You are the sea, the stone cottage, the selkie, the stolen skin, the woman, the man, the children, the visiting seal, the cries and the laughter. The thatched roof. The singing swallows under the thatched eaves, the baking bread, you’re every element in this story.
Maybe answer some of these questions as the baking bread would answer it or the singing swallows or the stolen skin.
Has there been a time in your life when you walked around in a different skin? And what was that like? Did you continue to seek your other skin? Have you found it? Did you find it?
Another set of questions could be: describe your ideal home. Where is it located? Does anyone live with you? Who? Who would that be? What is your favourite room within your home? Why? Describe the decor. Describe the surroundings of your ideal home and would you leave it all behind?
And another set of questions could be: just like the wild sea you have unfathomable depths. Can you discern some of what remains unexpressed in you? Write about a time you presented an authentic expression. An authentic expression of yourself yet it’s one that’s rarely seen.
And then my last set of questions I’ll be offering: our children are sparks of creation and a manifestation of life. What gives you life? What are you living for? What are your sparks and how do you tend to those sparks?