In the maddening dark depths of the ocean, under a small boulder, lived a lonely little fish. As long as he could remember, his entire life had been spent under the same boulder .Sometimes when he opened his eyes, boredom and loneliness forced him to take a look around his small shelter and, in most cases, he came across objects that were not from the ocean he knew. In fact, they were garbage that had been carried by the water flow, but over time, the same objects, whose nature was unfamiliar to the little fish, had become the only purpose of his survival.
He would collect them under his small boulder and cherish them. His completely dark one-color world gained hope by loving those inanimate objects and garbage... He used to talk to his loved ones and even tell stories to them. However, all his stories were summed up in one thing: A little black fish who always lives under a small black boulder in a dark world, and one day, at the peak of his daily loneliness, other fishes will find him, they'll become friends with each other, and while laughing with his friends, he'll experience a happy life until the end of his life...
Everything seemed as if it was going to stay the same forever, but as the days passed, the blackness slowly penetrated the small heart of the fish. His loved ones never responded to him, his black boulder no longer had a place to shelter him, and his hated existence knew no other dream and impossible story to tell... He hated the color black, himself, his boulder, his loved ones, and everything he Knew...
He always held his boulder tightly so as not to lose the only ones he had. So tight that all his efforts to maintain his love and interest in that situation had all turned into a deep hatred that made it hard for him to even breathe .He thought to himself that all this, is the result of my entire lifetime... If I die, shouldn't I at least be with them? A hateful and insignificant black fish that lived and died alone... Even repeating these sentences disgusted him more than before.
One day, while he was drowning in despair and hopelessness; He felt that something had passed over his head... He jumped up, his heart was beating excitedly in his chest, and his voice was ringing in his mind all the past days : ″the little fish would finally find many friends and be with them happily and contentedly for the rest of his life.″ He had so much excitement in his veins that he had forgotten, it was he, who had called this story over and over in vain and endless.
He swam, flapping his fins. For the first time, without even realizing it, he left his safe zone. The fins, which once felt that they had lost their efficiency, were now shaking the ocean waters with great power. At first, all his senses were looking for those friends of his dreams, but as time passed, he felt that he didn't want to stop, he felt that it was useless to keep his eyes open; So, just closed them and enjoyed the movement in his muscles, the rapid circulation of blood in his body, the movement of the water around him, of everything... All the time, his buried emotions were blooming and showing themselves.
When the pain finally spread through his body and the energy was drained from his fins, he stopped moving. He remained in that position for a long moment and then opened his eyes, closed them slowly and repeated to himself: All this feeling of freedom because I am already dead? He opened his eyes again; it was the same scene as before. He couldn't believe it, was he dead? He remembered exactly, he was swimming in the ocean; the same merciless ocean that was always dark. But was life trying to make fun of him? Where was that weird place? What else were those strange little creatures that moved together? Those strange things clinging to the rocks and those large moving creatures were even stranger than the others.
He was staring at his surroundings. He couldn't do anything else against this tasteless joke of life. He looked so much that little by little, the volume of traffic decreased in front of his eyes, those strange creatures hid in sheds and finally, the ocean became darker and darker.
He started moving again, this time he didn't close his eyes; he wanted to touch everything, whether it was the afterlife or not, he wanted to touch all these amazing things up close for the first time. Not much could be seen, but his sharp eyes swallowed almost everything in the darkness. He wandered until everything slowly lost its dark color again. The poor little fish repeated this for days and days until he could get used to that place full of surprises.
However, the story of his new life began precisely when one day he suddenly saw a group of unknown beings carrying something hard with their blades, who were passing by that place in a group. Those creatures were stranger than all the previous ones he had seen. Curiosity tickled his little mind so much that he ignored all those black thoughts that were emanating from his heart. He looked at each of them and then moved on to the most wrinkled one. He did not even know the reason for his choice. Maybe an instinct?
He asked about their existence and received an answer called turtle. He asked, "Does everyone come here after death?" After a loud laugh, the old turtle replied: I don't think that the world after death has such low and high inequality. The fish repeated: So this is not the world after death? And immediately asked again: So where is this? The experienced old one patiently said: Ocean. The home and refuge of all of us, the tomb and torture place of all of us and a generous mother who, while caressing her children, sacrifices them to her nature. The fish did not understand anything from his words but did not continue. He slowly swam beside them and asked questions every now and then. For the first time, he told about his life and heard about the real ocean. He talked about his loved ones and heard about creatures called human beings, he spoke about the blackness of his heart and learned that this new ocean is blue and there are other colors too: green, yellow, red and...
Once, when he was talking about his hatred of his black body, he heard the turtle's giggles coming out of his mouth in pieces. When he laughed, his fallen skin would shake, his eyes would close, and the sum of all of them had made the little fish angry at that moment. He had spoken about his hatred, his pain, and the burden he was carrying, and now this creature was laughing at him?
After a little laugh, the turtle spoke words: life in the depths of the seas, darkness, loneliness and monotony, all have caused you to be the only recipient of blackness. When you drown in yourself; The darkest points are always more visible. you know? There is a proverb that says there is no color above black. It's not your fault that you only see darkness, but seeing darkness should never prevent you from seeing the truth. You have to separate the blackness from the elegant and bright colors that make your soul shine and if necessary, throw it all away .It is exhausting and difficult, but it's only in this situation that you can extract the brightest and most captivating colors from the darkness of your existence and surroundings. In your whole life, you have deceived yourself with blackness, you have accepted all the annoying and corrupt things as they are, and not only have you not made a masterpiece out of them, but you've tried under various pretexts to get rid of your discomfort and torment, you've tried to hide your beauty and eliminate that. Did you know that it is almost impossible to hide a bright light source? So with the passage of time, only frustration and fatigue remain in your life. When you don't let your eyes see the light, you will never find the color unless you remove the darkness. You sacrificed the garbage of your life to find the light and now, from the heart of the deepest darkness and the most eerie blackness, a ruby has emerged whose purity, glory and splendor is more captivating than any other creature. Son, if you don't get rid of the blackness in your heart, eventually this vast ocean and all its colors will turn into the same black slate with its garbage. Until you return the purity of your heart to its original state, the truth will never show itself to your eyes, your ears will not hear the truth, and your mind will never believe them. So showing it to you at this time is a futile task that only robs you of the desire to discover the reality hidden in the depths of your heart .The Fish could understand, but didn't know what to do? What truth should he discover? Was there any other truth left?
At the same time, the old turtle suddenly let out a shout, the fish jumped up in fear, and looked at him. The turtle closed his eyes. He approached him with fear and asked him how he was doing with trembling words. Suddenly, the turtle looked into the eyes of the fish with those protruding eyes due to old age and said with a faint smile: Your bright aura under the ray of sunlight causes My eyes hurt.
The fish, who thought that he was trying to make fun of him, looked at the creature in front of him with seriousness and a little anger, repeated to himself: I shouldn't have taken his words seriously from the beginning. Apparently, everything is a joke to old people. A voice under his ear said: Kiddo, you take everything very seriously. One day, you will finally realize that everything in this life is funny.
Many days have passed. The whole time that these two creatures were together was spent arguing and debating, but still, the relationship that was formed between them was unbreakable. Life was flowing and the raging river of fish's life does not always remain calm. The turtle had told him many things, but the thirsty mind and soul of the fish were still eager. Finally, on a pleasant evening, when the sun's rays were slanting on the surface of the water, the fish separated from the turtle.
The dream of friends who would one day come and rescue him from loneliness had long ago disappeared, even in the deepest part of his being. Now it was him and himself. Himself and the new colors and the endless sea, rays of sunlight on the surface of the water and attractive colorful fishes dancing in the hands of nature. He had learned many lessons. Many things had changed his life and himself. He was now self-taught and self-made. Now, he cherished the part of him that still missed his loved ones and his precious stone. He didn't hate the black color anymore. He understood the beauty of that color and kept that dark part of his life as ″the precious past″ in a corner of his heart and visited it every now and then. Also, many colored parts were added to the niche of his heart that he loved everyone and even the worst was the best for him. He thought to himself: My old friend lied to me. Surely this is the afterlife. Because the old me has died and the new me has been reborn .
A year had passed since the separation of him and his old companion. It was a sunny day; the sun was shining in the middle of the sky so that its beautiful golden streaks covered the whole world of the little fish. Everything was like the old days, he was playing, swimming in the warm waters and swimming next to the fishes that were migrating en masse and listening to their stories.
Everything happened so suddenly that he did not understand anything about the events that were happening. A net surrounded him and his friends, he wanted to get rid of it and run away, but there was no way... Little by little, the voices returned: "Pull the net" "Pull″... And then, he felt himself being slowly pulled up. He was struggling and jumping up and down. He could feel that if he stayed in that situation just a little longer, his life would end.
During these attemptings, suddenly a light shone in his eyes. It wasn't sunlight, so he curiously followed the light source and reached the surface of the water. The reflection of everything had fallen on the surface of his lovely colorful ocean; The cruel net that caught him and his friends, A big ship where two-legged creatures walked on it with colorful skins. Almost everything was clear on the surface of the water, the faces of his friends and even the endless sky that he always stared at with fascination, and finally, the thing that he avoided the most, himself.
The reflection of his image was also painted on the surface of the blue waters. Among all the fish of the same shape, there was a small golden fish that made the sun bow with its shine. Its golden fins shine even in those conditions. A body more golden than the sun, with streaks of red, stood out so much that it was hard to look at it.
It had been a while since he stopped struggling and looked stunned. He was still looking for the little black fish of his imagination, but all the movements of that angelic painted fish were in sync with his own. Voices were playing in the back of his mind. Companions who always told him: ″how beautiful″. The friends who stared at him for seconds and repeated ″It's amazing″ He had always heard things like that. but how...?? Suddenly, someone repeated in his mind: {until you return the purity of your heart to its original state, the truth will never show itself to your eyes, your ears will not hear the truth, and your mind will never believe them}. Really...!! He was wrong again. Again, that strange old creature was right. How come he always lost to that turtle?
The weakness of his small body nipped her need for a loud giggle in the bud. As his chilled body hit the deck of the giant ship, just before his eyes closed forever, he repeated to himself:
"Everything in this life is really funny."