In her book, the Women Who Run With The Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estes tells the story of a seal woman who comes on to the land, just as seals do to dance, mate, birth and nurture their pups before returning to their wild home in the sea.
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Just as us mothers can feel lost and disconnected from our wild self when we are surrendering to motherhood feeling a call to return to ourselves, Estes describes how the seal-women cannot live on land for too long. While she’s on the land the seal woman’s seal-skin, which represents her ‘soul skin’ (and her ability to return home) is stolen and she begins to ‘dry out’, lose her creativity and die. Because she isn’t able to return home to her wild self, even for just a short time and replenish her needs she becomes lost.
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This story hit home so hard for me as I felt for many years like I had lost my own seal-skin. In becoming a mother we are often limited in how we can honour our own instinctual needs (that we are told to disregard) as well as take care of everyone else and so we can feel ourselves begin to ‘dry out’.
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Reconnecting with your wild home, even when you are faced with huge responsibilities or massive adversities is not only possible, it is so so necessary (especially in a culture that wants you to forget)…
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“When it’s time, it’s time… The seal woman returns to the sea, not because she just feels like it, not because today is a good day to go, not because her life is all nice and tidy- there is no nice and tidy time for anyone. She goes because it is time, and therefore she must… ”
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We can both surrender into the ebbs and flow of motherhood (and life) AND connect with our wild self.
The process of answering the call to come home to yourself and reclaiming your own soul-skin is as unique and individual as you are. There is no one-size fits all.
At the end of the story, it is clear that it is not just the seal-woman who benefits from returning home. Her son becomes the bridge between the wild and the land. He is infused with her wild spirit and he starts to live in a way himself by protecting these needs.
Are you hearing the call? Are you yearning to come home?
What is YOUR soul calling you to do?
What do you stand to lose if you do not answer?
Have you felt lost, disconnected or isolated?
Has motherhood left you adrift and you are ready to rekindle with the vibrancy of life you just don’t know where to look
If you are ready to come home to yourself and reclaim and remember your own soul skin, I am here to offer support on your journey.
Read more about Alignment Coaching HERE or book in for a free clarity call HERE