Cvs, I don't doubt it one bit that you may very well have been a fish in a past life.
Besides, I know from my own personal experience that we are all 'connected' with things on a deep, emotional way that doesn't seem to make any sense in our present life. That is, until we begin remembering past lives.
I mean, take me for example. I was in junior high. I'd only lived in Minnesota and Georgia. Never been exposed to anything even remotely Asian (minus Chow Mein that my mom liked to eat on and off over the years).
But one day in one of my classes, I went over to a pile of books that sat on a cabinet that was against the wall. I just opened up the book (it was free time in that class so I had time to spare) and started flipping through. I stopped when I saw a picture of a Japanese building. Not one of the modern skyscraper-type buildings, but one of the older style buildings, with the curved up corners of the roof.
In the moment I looked at that picture, I felt it deep within myself, "I want to go to Japan", as if a part of me was familiar with the old Japan, like I was looking at something I'd known all my life and that I was connected with emotionally. Even though I had no logical reason to feel this way. It wasn't a simple whim or 'ohhh that's pretty - oh look! a butterfly! la de da!'. It was something deep within myself.
After a minute or two I closed the book and went on my way. As time went on, I didn't think about it again. Not until high school when I started watching anime. It wasn't overbearing or insistent. Just a quiet little 'something' nestled at the back of my mind. However, once I got on my spiritual path, and recalled my first past life, which happened to be in Japan waaayy back, it's like something clicked. It made a bit more sense. However, the realization of this didn't really hit me until a few years later, as I was recalling more and more of my past lives.
Although, even now, I know I've barely recalled even half of my past lives, I have noticed a pattern. A large chunk of my past lives (that I've recalled so far) were in Japan, a few in China, and even fewer on another planet that, in that time and space, was extremely similar to there. (From what I gather, nutshell version for you here, I had to spend time there on another planet because there was a 'pause' I had to take from the Earth. Things were changing, but I still had things I needed to learn in that sort of setting.)
I know how nuts this can sound to anyone, and, hey, if I was told this back in '98 or even in '00, I'd just look at the person and go 'Wow are you seven different levels of nuts, or what?'
But this is what I feel, what I've remembered, and, more than once, I've crossed paths with a person in this lifetime who I shared a past life with in that time and place. It was both comforting and confirming at the same time. Two different people who'd never met before in this lifetime, who had no ability to know about exact and specific details of a time and place long before now. Doubters can say whatever they want, but when you have a moment like that, everything clicks together. It makes sense. You understand it. It's not imagination or thinking or 'maybe' or belief or faith. It's fact and you *know* it.
Now, here I am in 2011. I've been blessed enough to recall other past lives, other times and places and peoples. There is so much I understand how about how I feel, about why I feel connected to certain places, certain cultures, specific animals. Why I feel so perfectly comfortable behaving in a respectful, humble manner.
It's not a phase. It's not my imagination. This is a culmination of my past lives, of my encounters, of my loves and losses, of who I was and who I also am now.
When you feel that deep connection with something, and there is no logical reason why you feel so connected, so familiar with it, there is more to it than just mere childish imagination.
Take it from me, if you feel so connected with the water and with the form of a fish, and you embrace the sensation of it, I wouldn't dare say you didn't have one, or even many, past lives as a water-dwelling critter.
I mean, heck! Up until a couple weeks back, and my apologies for being honest here, I thought people who said they were once an animal or even a dinosaur in an ancient past life sounded kind of nuts. I mean... really!?
However, it wasn't until one evening I was sitting on the couch (with a Lemurian crystal sitting close by and me not being aware she was tapping into my energy and helping me) and just drawing that I started being guided in my drawing*.
(*This is very common for me when I meditate and when my guides want to get a message across to me. I'll sit down to draw and they'll, for lack of any better way of saying it, will take my hand, metaphorically-speaking, and guide me in spirit. Whether it's a message, a past life bubbling back up to my conscious mind, a new guide coming into my life, or whatever.)
I ended up drawing and having a vision of not just one, but 3 past lives I had where I was a dinosaur. I'm sure you can imagine my reaction while drawing / seeing this. What really made me do a double take was, not just that I was a dinosaur in those lives (and a sabertooth cat in another O_o), but that I had a dragon-form guide with me through those times. In one of the images I drew / saw, she was literally standing guard over me while I slept one night and snarled and growled at most any passing creature that "dared to come close" to her "ward". (ward - someone (usually a minor) who has a guardian appointed by the court to care for and take responsibility for that person)
For about the next two days I just sort of sat back and went 'whoa' about this. Even took a bit of time to really recall and feel what it was like to be in that sort of mindset, just because I was curious. I tell you what, definately a whole world's difference when it comes to the mentality of a dinosaur (though I'd imagine it'd be extremely similar, if not the same, for most any animal, even these days). Very simple. Food. Not food. Safe animal. Not safe animal. Sleep. Mate. No complicated relationships, no lies, no conversations so speak of, just ... very simple to live, know, and understand.
(Even know it still sort of blows me away when I think about it. O_o)
And now, I could go on and on about what I've remembered (even one past life I had on another planet, one of extremely few I've lived off of the Earth, where I was some sort of humanoid Lizard type of creature. Just as civilized as it was in the Medieval times here on the Earth, clothing, buildings, society and status, all of that. I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when I was remembering that. ^_^U), but I think I'd said more than my 2 cent's worth here.
Bah, but now I've gone off onto one of my rambling tangents. My apologies, Cvs.
I guess, to ATTEMPT to make this short, go with what you feel. If you do feel that deep connection, and it's not wavered or weakened for you over your years, if it feels as familiar to you as it does walking into your own home or wearing your favorite, most comfortable clothes, then I wouldn't doubt it one little bit you lived as a fish.
The best advice I can give you? Listen to your heart. Go with that 'familiar' feeling, and don't doubt or question it. (Though feel free to be curious about it and want to learn more about it with the help of your white lighted guides.) If nothing else, just enjoy how you you feel about it.
So, keep on swimming!
May Love, Light, Harmony, and Grace be on your path all the days you walk it, Cvs!