merfolk on the Yellow Breeches creek
...an outing with my cousin and her two young teens who were following in the finbeats of their favorite youtubers by searching for sunken treasure... they found some, including a laptop (presumably non functional).Rus tried the monofin and was amused.
merfolk on the Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in North America, it's the drowned feet of the Susquehanna River, which flows through my county in PA. Of course everything we do here also flows into that large inland ocean; runoff from mines, farms, lawns and pavement, random plastic, balloons let loose by clueless idiots, the tennis ball that got away and your pet poopies.(there are ways to control all this stuff).
Still, there are lots of reasons it's awesome, and lots of people working to preserve it. There are blue crabs and oysters, rock fish and other good things to eat. Sturgeon are making a comeback, and there are wildlife refuges, parks and green places to paddle or spend a day at the beach.
A couple of my favorite hidden pearls of the Chesapeake are the Sassafras River, where American lotus bloom from mid-July to mid-August, Eastern Neck Wildlife Refuge, and Rock Hall MD.
One day in June some friends and I made an expedition to these hidden treasures...
Still awesome enough to attract some merfolk...
Still, there are lots of reasons it's awesome, and lots of people working to preserve it. There are blue crabs and oysters, rock fish and other good things to eat. Sturgeon are making a comeback, and there are wildlife refuges, parks and green places to paddle or spend a day at the beach.
A couple of my favorite hidden pearls of the Chesapeake are the Sassafras River, where American lotus bloom from mid-July to mid-August, Eastern Neck Wildlife Refuge, and Rock Hall MD.
One day in June some friends and I made an expedition to these hidden treasures...
Still awesome enough to attract some merfolk...
The blue tail, monofin and my rashguard shirt are from Fin Fun. They make affordable merstuff for all ages, in a wide variety of fabulous patterns and colors.
The other fins on the expedition were the Finis Luna, and the Mahina, seen in the videos of swimming at Rock Hall, below... (the Luna is inside the tailskin, the Mahina was worn with leggings)
The other fins on the expedition were the Finis Luna, and the Mahina, seen in the videos of swimming at Rock Hall, below... (the Luna is inside the tailskin, the Mahina was worn with leggings)
inspiring a sense of wonder
Mermaiding is about connecting to wonderful real places like these. It's about being part of Planet Water and maybe inspiring others to care for it.
Swimming in the "tidal teal" tail at Rock Hall, I encountered a young mom and a preschool boy wearing a shark PFD. One of my friends said when she saw me, her eyes got wide and her mouth fell open. When I surfaced and saw her, she said "He wants to know if you're real."
(thinks furiously about what professional online mermaids say... ummmm, I'm a real person and I swim as a mermaid... at this age, you want to maintain some sort of sense of wonder)
"I'm real."
I said something about his shark floatie, and that led to a conversation about whether sharks eat mermaids or mermaids eat sharks or if they are friends. I think they're friends, because sharks are important and we need to do all we can to protect them. I told him he could be a merboy, he could get a tail some day too. I swam around them and waved bye bye.
Older kids know, of course, that you're in a cool costume. They'll say it's cool. or they like it and you can tell them how much fun it is and where they can get a tail.You can tell them it's for everyone, no matter your age, shape, color, gender or whatever. You can tell them how it connects you to the water world we depend on.
Or not.
Let them discover that for themselves.
Meanwhile, exercise your creativity, let your inner child out to play, because that's where human innovation and solutions to real problems come from.
And spark some wonder in a few kids... or grownups.
Swimming in the "tidal teal" tail at Rock Hall, I encountered a young mom and a preschool boy wearing a shark PFD. One of my friends said when she saw me, her eyes got wide and her mouth fell open. When I surfaced and saw her, she said "He wants to know if you're real."
(thinks furiously about what professional online mermaids say... ummmm, I'm a real person and I swim as a mermaid... at this age, you want to maintain some sort of sense of wonder)
"I'm real."
I said something about his shark floatie, and that led to a conversation about whether sharks eat mermaids or mermaids eat sharks or if they are friends. I think they're friends, because sharks are important and we need to do all we can to protect them. I told him he could be a merboy, he could get a tail some day too. I swam around them and waved bye bye.
Older kids know, of course, that you're in a cool costume. They'll say it's cool. or they like it and you can tell them how much fun it is and where they can get a tail.You can tell them it's for everyone, no matter your age, shape, color, gender or whatever. You can tell them how it connects you to the water world we depend on.
Or not.
Let them discover that for themselves.
Meanwhile, exercise your creativity, let your inner child out to play, because that's where human innovation and solutions to real problems come from.
And spark some wonder in a few kids... or grownups.
