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About the Author

Meet Vyana, a remarkable lawyer and mermaid enthusiast living on the Big Island of Hawaii. When the sun rises to warm Kona’s sparkling waters, Vyana embraces her mermaid nature, often swimming amidst the island’s vibrant coral reefs. She fell in love with the ocean from her family’s canoe as a child in Puget Sound surrounded by Orcas and making friends with playful giant red octopus.  By taking photos of the incredibly diverse creatures underwater, she hopes to help the rest of the planet fall in love with the ocean too!

Her experiences under the sea enrich her perspective, making her a passionate advocate for the environment.  As a mermaid, she has helped All One Ocean fundraise to keep our oceans clean.

On land, she dives into the complex waters of the legal profession.  She created her own law firm so she would be free to bring all of her super powers to the job – even her feminine values: by caring for her clients and their relationships and by applying her emotional intelligence.  Justice is not one-size-fits-all.  Instead of trying to control her clients, she wants to empower them.  Instead of going to battle, she helps her clients stay out of court whenever possible.  

This extraordinary life, blending human and marine worlds, gives her a deep understanding of nature’s intricate balance. She has noticed that most of the world works together cooperatively rather than through conflict.

Apart from her legal career, Vyana is also a talented children’s book author. Her stories, inspired by her underwater adventures, are filled with magic and vital messages about kindness, freedom, magic and communing with nature. Through her engaging narratives, Vyana aims to remind herself and inspire others to appreciate the wisdom we all carry as well as the importance of coexisting harmoniously with nature.

Swim with Dolphins

I moved to Hawaii 9 years ago because of the friendly wild Hawaiian spinner dolphins.

First, they taught me how to play the leaf game. They would drop a leaf in front of me in the ocean and then race me to it. Whoever got there first had to perform with the leaf to make the other laugh. The dolphin would let me win the race half the time so we could take turns doing silly dances with the leaf.

I learned to communicate with the dolphins mostly through body language. If I swam toward them head-on, they would appear to avoid me. If I swam beside them in the same direction with my tummy facing them, they would swim closer. They preferred it when I kept my arms tucked by my side like flippers.

Dolphins also seemed to like it when I sang to them. I wonder if the sound waves from my singing are like watching a movie in their sonar brain?

The Hawaiians, some of whom have been swimming with dolphins for generations, taught me how to be “pono” around the dolphins. Pono can mean the righteous way to do something. The Hawaiian elders at one beach said,“Just float. Don’t dive down. Don’t chase.” So that is what I did, but the dolphins didn’t understand why I couldn’t play the leaf game with them anymore.

At another beach, the elder said it was OK to play with the dolphins, but that I should notice when they were awake (both eyes open), and when they were resting (one eye closed), and “treat them accordingly.” Some fishing villages never swam with dolphins at all. It seemed that each beach and each Hawaiian family had different traditions to honor, and I loved learning from their ancient wisdom.

In the year 2021, humans lost the privilege of swimming with wild spinner dolphins in Hawaii when NOAA (part of the federal government) decided it was against the law. As a mermaid, that made me feel sad since dolphins are our brothers and sisters.

I was born with a terrible disability – legs! Everyone thinks I’m human, and I can hardly keep up with my dolphin friends even when I wear my prosthetic tail.

I hope that one day, we can all learn to swim in a “pono” way with wild spinner dolphins of Hawai’i and the law will not be needed. Until then, we can learn how to be kinder to each other, learn to speak dolphin, and of course, play more!

—Vyana

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About the Artist

I love colors and capturing the play of light and shadow in my paintings and drawings. I have always lived close to the ocean and take every chance I can to visit the beaches of my native Oregon and Hawaii, breathing in the vibrant beauty where land and ocean meet. I recognize that stories are being told in the lives we see, and strive to represent them respectfully, in both the subtle details and the real (if fancifully portrayed) connections among living things. It was a delight for me to collaborate with Vyana on the fulfillment of a life-long dream: to illustrate a children’s book! I felt such joy to hear my youngest granddaughter Luci exclaim, “Grandma, this book is about PLAY!!”

I have learned so much from Destiny and her family during the year- long journey drawing and painting thirty-two pages to accompany the story about the communities within which the spinner dolphins live their remarkable lives! Along with the dolphins, Octavia the octopus, Archie the urchin, Rufus the eel, and the others have emerged from Vyana’s fertile imagination to embody the amazing diversity of life— and ways of living— in the coastal waters of Hawai’i.

Every painting in our book is filled with the spirit of aloha expressing our kinship with the creatures with whom we share this planet, each species practicing its own unique pono.

May the children who read this book with their loved ones be inspired to engage our sea-dwelling sisters and brothers with ever-deepening respect and compassion!

Please visit me at
www.PatriciaSchmidtArt.com