Love Letter to Tamayorihimi

 
Beloved Goddess, 

I will never forget the first time I met you... 

You were sitting cross-legged like a child in the flow of fast moving water. Your long, dark hair was tied up in a knot. Cords wrapped about your slender arms, bound like bracelets from which long tassels hung. Your fair skin was draped in the sheerest fabric that clung to your body like the finest silk, revealing the delicate outline of your naked form. 

Unaware that I had come upon you, you continued singing a song so sweet that upon hearing it, I froze, no longer able to walk past, nor utter a word of greeting or apology. Mesmerized by the angelic siren sound of your voice... I could only listen.

With only a mere flash of awareness of not wanting to rudely stand over you, I sank into the water at my feet, and sat the way you were positioned. Vaguely aware that my summer dress swished to and fro around my body like seaweed as the tide came in and rolled out. The salty water swirling around my thighs and belly as I closed my eyes and merged with you as your soul song wove loose strands of me into the a language I didn't know- 

Words as lilting and light as air, distant and far away, yet somehow I understood their meaning. Somehow, they were as familiar as my own thoughts:

Back down to the water front

Sunlit hue to keep my body warm

I guess you loved the man, I couldn't tell

It's the cold wet hand

against my mother's spell

Water bring my body in

I know she loves me

through thick and thin

And I call on the water to clean

The remains of the dirt that it leaves

To be brave and alert and pristine

There's a stain in the heart of me

Water bring my body in

I know she loves me

through thick and thin

Current come pull me down

I won't take a breath, I wanna drown

After a time, you must have stopped singing, but I was unaware, so lost in the romance of the moment and the rhythmic lapping of the waves kissing my skin. When it finally dawned on me, I opened my eyes to find you watching me with such tenderness, and something akin to a deeply knowing compassion. 

Slowly, a soft smile lifted the corners of your lips just as a tear fell from your eye. I placed my hands in prayer mudra to my lips, and bowed to you with eyes closed. My heart an unveiled apology for my uninvited voyeuristic crime.
As if carried by the wind, you were kneeling beside me, bathing ribbons of water over my arms and face with such gentleness it made me cry. Eye to eye, we gazed into one another until the sun began to set, and shivers rocked our bodies. Then, arm in arm, you pulled me to my feet, and together we walked into the ocean depths and found warmth and rest. 

Ancient ruler of the sea, and She Who governs all matters of health, cleanse me from all impurity that I may be healed of all disease, that I may be free of past sins and needless fear. The next time we meet, lets dance with the flow of tides and sing another song - this time, a song of awakening joy.

Thank you.

-Yours devotedly.

Note:
Letter by the Water 

lyrics by The Japanese House