"Ugly" Fish...Spread Love to EVERY Living Being

In 2014 my family and I traveled on a cruise to Alaska for my grandmother’s 80th birthday. Our last day was in Vancouver, and since we had a long while to wait until our flight left, we spent the day in the Vancouver Aquarium.  Animals are magical and since my life long dream was to become a Vet, any chance I could get to be near God’s creatures I wouldn’t normally be close to, I’ll take it in a heart beat!! Sebastian and I walked around into a room that was a few steps down, and dark, lit only by the vast array of many small aquariums, lining the walls full of different small fish.  When we stepped into the room I noticed a group of elementary kids, maybe in third grade, crowded into one corner, all tapping on the glass of one tank and grossed out, yelling “eww!! it’s so ugly!!!” 

The thought immediately came into my head, “man, that would suck. To constantly have your tank banged on and all you hear all day long, every day is how ugly you are!” Eventually the children grew bored at rebuking this fish, left it’s tank and curiosity lead me to walk over to the corner and see what all the fuss was about. There seemed to be what felt like a cloud of “ugly” lingering in that corner. What I saw, was a very sad fish, with it’s back towards the glass, facing the false background. Small light-tan pebbles covered the bottom in this mostly barren tank. The water was even dingy, unlike the clear water of all the “beautiful” fish that neighbored this tank. What I saw was one of the most magnificently camouflaged fish God could have ever created. A bottom dweller. Tan, wide, it’s mouth spanning the width of its body with large lips. It’s back covered in what looked like sea-plant-life, “perfection” I thought to myself. “I’m sure it’s mama thinks it’s beautiful” I told Sebastian. And placed my hand on the tank. I imagined love emanating from my hand and I said to the fish, “You are the most beautiful fish I have ever seen. You are simply perfection. You are so beautiful.”  And I kid you not, the little “plant-like" tendrils on the fish’s back perked up, and the fish slowly turned around to look at me. I lowered my hand, so it could see my face, and I simply stood there, beaming at it. The fish actually swam up to the glass and pressed his perfectly large, wide mouth against it. I put my hand where his mouth was and I said it again, “you are so beautiful. You are perfection.” And as I said it the second time I started to cry.  Sebastian looked up at me (who was 8 at the time) and asked why I was crying. I explained how sad it must be to have little kids bang on the tank and tell it how ugly it is all the time, I asked him to imagine how he would feel if that happened to him. He thought about it for a while, and put his hand next to mine and said the same thing I did, but added “your mom and girlfriend think you’re beautiful too!” I grinned and nodded my head. 

We stood there for a long while, showering it with compliments and left.  The energy in the corner even seemed better.

Though it’s been five years, that fish still often comes to mind. I know some kind of connection was made, so when I think of it, I imagine that we’re there again, loving it for the perfection that it was created to be. The thought of it constantly being made fun of still brings me to tears, which lead me to write this- to get this out of me, and perhaps change the way we approach “ugly” creatures.

Every single living thing was created on purpose, with great care and for a reason.

I feel that fish, which I learned was an American Goosefish, came so that I could be made aware of the energy and words I bring to every single living being. How important it is, to spread love- no, to BE LOVE to everything as often as you can. There is enough “ugly” in the world…. let’s do our best to replace that ugly with LOVE.