{"id":2476,"date":"2011-07-01T09:01:12","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T08:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maritspaperworld.com\/blog\/?p=2476"},"modified":"2013-02-03T14:54:50","modified_gmt":"2013-02-03T13:54:50","slug":"the-story-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maritspaperworld.com\/blog\/the-story-of\/","title":{"rendered":"The story of…"},"content":{"rendered":"

the man & the mermaid (and how I got my name)<\/h3>\n

Once upon a time, there was a young man who lived near the sea.
\nHe was a bit of a loner, and didn’t fit well in the community.
\nHe had friends, oh yes, but he had a longing deep within him.
\nHe didn’t even know what he longed for, but it had to do with the sea.
\nSo much he knew.
\nHe kept on coming back to the beach, staring over the waves…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once upon a time, there was a mermaid.
\nAlthough she loved her family and life, deep hidden on the seabed,
\nshe was somehow drawn to the water surface.
\nWas it out of curiosity?
\nShe didn’t know what caused the feeling, but she kept coming back
\nto the surface to peek at the beach that laid in the distance.<\/p>\n

In the Springtime, she saw people who walked their dogs.
\nSummer came, and children built sandcastles on the beach.
\nThe wind played with the sand during Autumn storms and
\nin the winter, she stared at the dunes wondering what would lay behind it.<\/p>\n

… and one day, she saw him.<\/p>\n

The young man stood at the empty beach, and stared at the waves.
\nHer heart pounded when their eyes met, but before he realised what he saw
\nshe dove under. . . so the young man, a sober guy, told himself he’d seen a fish.<\/p>\n

That night he saw her eyes again in a dream and when he woke up,
\nhe was convinced that he really had looked at a mermaid the other day.<\/p>\n

The mermaid thought of the young man all day
\nand all night.
\nShe couldn’t sleep.
\nShe stayed below the surface for a month, two months, three months.
\nShe still couldn’t sleep and when she did (only for a minute or so)
\nshe dreamt of him.
\nShe couldn’t eat and she wasn’t the happy mermaid she was before.
\nHer friends worried.
\nHer parents worried.
\nAfter four months, she told the whole story to her mum.
\nHer mum laughed but at the same time looked sad.
\n‘Dear daughter… I know what this is.
\nWe thought you were ill, but it’s much worse.
\nYou are deeply in love, this cannot be cured.
\nThere ain’t no cure for love, you know.<\/p>\n

Right that minute the mermaid knew what she had to do.
\nShe kissed her parents goodbye, she waved at her friends and left.
\nShe swam all the way to the surface and ventured to the beach.
\nIt was an early Autumn morning and the beach was empty.
\nShe combed the tangle out of her hair and waited….<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meermin op het strand<\/p>\n

kamt haar haren, wacht op hem<\/p>\n

haar grote liefde<\/td>\n

<\/td>\nMermaid on the beach<\/p>\n

combs her hair and waits for him<\/p>\n

everlasting love<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

She saw him coming over the dunes.
\nAll that time, every day, he had come to the beach
\nlooking for his mermaid.
\nAnd there she was.
\nHe hold her in his arms and carried her home.
\nGently, he laid her in the bathtub but her tail was already
\nstarted to shrink on the moment he’d kissed her.
\nThe process took a few days and it was painful
\nbut after that, the tail was transformed into a beautiful pair of legs.
\nHe taught her to walk, and they walked along the beach together.<\/p>\n

Only a year later, a little girl was born.
\nThe girl had legs…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The mermaid and the man were over the moon happy.
\n‘I’m glad she doesn’t have a tail’ the man said ‘but when she grows up,
\nI want her to remember that her mum once was a mermaid.
\nI don’t want her to abnegate her origin when she gets older.
\nHow can we do that?’<\/p>\n

‘Let’s call her Marit’ the mermaid said.
\n‘It means ‘daughter of the sea’ and she will carry that name all her life.
\nThat way she will never forget.’<\/p>\n

The girl grew up to love the sea…<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And she got a baby brother…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… he had no tail either.
\nHe looked real human and so he was named after his dad,
\nto keep things in balance.<\/p>\n

The man and the mermaid kept on loving each other…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… and they loved their children.
\nThey were one happy family.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And the girl?
\nThe girl never forgot where she came from.<\/p>\n

How could she with a name like that.
\n‘Daughter of the sea’
\nMarit<\/p>\n

And they all lived happily ever after.<\/p>\n

This was the story about how I got my name.<\/p>\n

The haiku is written for ‘Haiku my heart<\/a>‘.
\nClick the link to visit the other participants and read more haiku’s.<\/p>\n

Have a great weekend dear ones, and see you on Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Yes, I’ll be back Sunday<\/strong>!)<\/p>\n

* Don’t forget about the giveaway in my former post<\/a>.
\nThe winner will be announced on Tuesday!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

the man & the mermaid (and how I got my name) Once upon a time, there was a young man who lived near the sea. He was a bit of a loner, and didn’t fit well in the community. He had friends, oh yes, but he had a longing deep within him. He didn’t even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,195],"tags":[228,1157,227,1140,225,226,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-2476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"category-haiku-2","8":"tag-fairytale","9":"tag-haiku","10":"tag-love","11":"tag-marit","12":"tag-mermaid","13":"tag-name","14":"tag-sea","15":"entry","16":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maritspaperworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maritspaperworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maritspaperworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritspaperworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritspaperworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritspaperworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maritspaperworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritspaperworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritspaperworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}