Let's All Be Goldfish Girls/Guys...Swim and Be Free

Last night, I was gifted with a Waterford crystal fish from a dear friend…she said it reminded her of me.  Hmmm, at first I thought, perhaps because we’re both Pisces. But of course the story doesn’t end there…it was a highly synchronistic event. Earlier in the week, I was listening to my IPod and a song from Ani DiFranco came up. I actually don’t know the name of it since the selection was burned on a cd for me by a friend and all I know is the track number. Well I did know the track number within ½ an hour of listening to it and did jot it down. And good thing I did it then, because know I remember something note worthy happened, but I can’t remember the track or the lyrics for the life of me and hence my deserved nickname of Goldfish Girl.

But before I put the cart before the horse, let me share the lyrics.  They are, “…I read a story and then I forgot it right away. And they say goldfish have no memory, I guess their lives are just like mine and the little plastic castle is a surprise every time and it’s hard to say if they’re happy but they don’t seem much to mind.”

This reason I was drawn to writing this down was not for this blog, but because it made me nostalgic. I was working on a project with a team of people for my day job and I started to forget things that people told me just minutes before, which was quite atypical for me. So an associate told me your like a goldfish, they only have a memory of  seconds. I wonder how they know or test this. So, throughout the rest of the project the team (including myself) mockingly called me Goldfish Girl and it’s always in the back of my mind when I get forgetful.

Now it’s more than three years later and I heard these lyrics while on the subway. I realized the potency of them although didn’t do anything other than put the lyrics to paper. Then as I already told you, spirit knocked on my door again, and has a friend gift me with a crystal goldfish. So of course I ponder my existence as Goldfish Girl even further. After all, pondering is what I do best.

How great life would be if every experience in life was like the song says and we could be like the goldfish with the plastic castle or a child pulling the toy surprise out of the box of Cracker Jacks and have a feeling of "wow that's new and cool" to almost everything...and we didn’t let our histories, our mistakes or our wounds define us and stop us from doing something new and exciting. Heck let’s forget the bad stuff, if we get too attached to the good stuff, we can stay in a rut and never venture out and discover another potentially more-wow experience. There is such power in freedom from attachment to our histories and reactions to that history.


So for any of you “realists”, I’m going to beat you to the punch. I know that I’ve also heard that the definition of insanity is when someone keeps banging their head against the wall and expects different results...and ,aybe that’s how they figured out goldfish have short memories, as they saw them crashing into the fish bowl walls over and over again.

However, the message I’m trying to convey is that by being free of our expectation and history we can be present with what works best for us in the moment. When we live in the present, our mistakes become our muse inspiring us with new ways to re-create ourselves.

Let’s be present with what is true in the moment and create from this place. Let’s all be like Goldfish Girls or Guys, depending on your gender preference, and swim through life and Be Free!