Every year, there is a sign up at one of my favourite beaches, announcing that a seal or several elephant seals are moulting.
We are asked to not get too close.
To give these females their space.
Catastrophic moulting is when a seal beaches herself on dry land in order to slough off her old pelt skin.
Some animals do this gradually.
Not elephant seals.
Once a year they grow an entirely new layer of epidermis and fur.
The seals are vulnerable during this time of transition, so they gather close together. During this time they develop sleek new skins that allow them to dive to the depths that would destroy other mammals, that shed and regrow their fur year round.
Women in peri menopause and menopause are like this.
We sometimes need to haul ourselves out of our familiar waters -our day to day lives- in order to grow a more sleek and effective skin to navigate the new waters, the new chapters of our lives.
We dive deep in order to transform.
To become the women we are intended to become.
During this time, we depend and lean literally and figuratively on each other for support during this internal and external transformation.
This period is not pretty, not fun, not sexy nor outwardly graceful.
And yet it is full of GRACE.
It is a necessary step in our unfolding.
Our evolution as women.
This phase may look and feel radical.
A fundamental shift from who we were going into this moulting-menopausal metamorphosis.
Often, if we are unable to create this space for ourselves, a health or external
crisis occurs.
To get our attention.
To wake us up.
To shake us up-if need be.
This was the case for me.
It took a complete and debilitating endocrine crash to startle me into a new awareness.
A new relationship with my inner and outer selves.
New found boundaries.
Clear yes and no’s.
Still working on that one!
A new found appreciation of limits.
Of pauses.
Of ongoing reflection.
Of love.
We moult away the layers of false strength, and stoicism.
We begin to lean into who we are, and what we feel.
We are no longer concerned about who we are supposed to be…….
Who we think we should be-for the SOLE benefit of others.
We begin to consider who are on a SOUL level for the benefit of ourselves and others.
May we learn from and remain connected to the elephant seal in her unapologetic biological imperative.
Ducit Amore 