The Manatee Oracle

You find yourself diving in a calm ocean channel off the coast of a tropical paradise. They say there’s a shipwreck in these waters and you’re hoping to explore its remains. Maybe you’ll even find some treasure.

Delightful brightly colored fish swim in schools in and out of the sea grass waving in the current all around you. Every plant and animal on the ocean floor seems to sparkle in prisms of sunlight streaming through the water above you.

You dive just a bit deeper, toward a more secluded pocket of sand where the water is a bit murkier. Ahead, you can see what looks like a tall structure ahead in the wavy depths. Thinking you’ve found the shipwreck, you swim full speed ahead to explore. You can’t explain it, but it feels like there’s something there for you in the deep. Something about this is important for you right here, right now.

As you approach, you see that this is no shipwreck. In fact, is that a…spire? Is that a turret?! You blink a little, thinking your eyes must still be adjusting. But they aren’t deceiving you - you are indeed floating on the sandy lawn of an enormous underwater castle. As you take it all in, like something out of The Little Mermaid, the ancient spirit of a giant and gentle manatee appears beside you, swimming toward the front door. The manatee wiggles its snout at you and beckons you inside.

You have found The Manatee oracle, and it has a story to share with you today.

The Manatee oracle says:

Sometimes it’s very difficult to remember what home is, or to feel like you ever knew at all. We travel far and wide - physically, mentally, emotionally, and in other ways - and things happen in life’s ocean. Boat motors stop working, leaving you to drift. Trade winds blow you off course. A pod of dolphins leads you somewhere beautiful, unexplored, and incredibly remote. Huge storms swirl everything together and displace you somewhere you never meant to go - sometimes a lush utopia, sometimes a desert island, always somewhere far from home.

The swells and dips and rough seas and joy cruises - all combined, they can take you further and further from home until you forget what home is, what it means to you to feel at home. Until you feel a little like a pirate, sailing the seas without end, fighting for every treasure you find, making the unpredictable seas your home, zero sense of calm or peace or land in sight.

So you may catch yourself one day realizing just how long its been since you felt like you could just kick off your shoes and totally, completely, utterly relax. How long since you felt a sense of absolute ease. How long since you felt like you were in a place of effortless belonging with everyone and everything around you.

You may find yourself in a moment where you realize: Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve really felt like I was at home - with the world, with yourself. And because it’s been so long, it’s hard to see how you might even get back there.

But you don’t need to see it. You don’t even need to steer or map it out or try to coordinate yourself a homecoming. You’re doing something much gentler, much calmer, much more graceful, much more manatee:

You’re riding the current. You started riding it the minute you said, wait… show me home again. Your inner self heard you. Your higher self heard you. Your child self heard you. And they all know the way - they always have. They know what home is to your very soul, not just the structures and locales that look good on the outside.

While you ride the current, you are led intuitively and instinctually to the places, people, and experiences that feel like a warm bath. Currents are invisible - you feel them, you see where they’re pointing you, but you can’t tell where exactly they lead. And maybe that’s part of the point. Because it gets to be easy, coming home to yourself. It gets to be a winding journey in its own right, full of its own scenery and characters and plot points.

You are following along your deepest knowing of what feels easeful, supportive, and fulfilling to you. This is different for everyone - no one can take you there except for you.

When you arrive - and you will arrive - you will know it instantly: You made it home. Not only to somewhere you belong in the world, but to yourself. It will soak into your bones, the feeling of being a harmonious, welcome part of everything around you. It will be obvious in every detail, that this is what home feels like for you. And you will never forget it again.

Wherever future tides may take you, whichever new waters you swim in, whatever adventures life has in store for you, your home is something you carry with you everywhere you go.

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About the Artist
Bailey Lewis is an experiential storytelling artist (MFA, University of South Carolina) who combines words, images, and reimagined materials to create intuitive story experiences. Her art has been exhibited and published internationally, and she is the author of award-winning stories which have been featured in The Wigleaf Top 50 and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. 

Visit the Bailey Sends Word Story Studio site for more about Bailey’s work.