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In this photo, (shot last Saturday by my awesome 27-year-old former nanny charge who was visiting from Minnesota), there are literally tons of elephant seals behind me. |
Elephant seals appear to be just lazy lumps laying around on the beach. And it is true that they are nearly immobile for most of their time on land. But 90% of their lives are spent swimming gracefully in the water where they can cover 60 miles in a day and dive over 5000 feet deep.
I have felt a bit like the beached seals recently. They go here to mate and molt. This involves a lot of posturing, making funny noises and is quite an exhausting process for them.
Although I am not mating, I have been creating a new life and this has involved posturing (LOOK AT ME —check out what I am doing!), and making funny noises (I suspect much of what I have been trying to communicate has sounded as silly and/or incomprehensible to many of you as seal barks and snorts!) and it has definitely been exhausting.
I have also been taking some deep, dark dives into emotional waters recently while trying to avoid being consumed by my inner sharks. I'm looking forward to gracefully swimming to wherever I am meant to go very soon.
As for molting, like the mythical Selkies who their shed their skins to transform from seals to humans, the messy process I have been undergoing while creating Sparks & Leaps feels like it is becoming transformational and magical.
Not magical as in “abracadabra POOF” with a magic wand where transformation takes place in a flash. 💥
More like a slow painful alchemical process that involves a lot of molten heat.
I, of course, wish it was quicker and easier, but my understanding is that no true transformation happens like that.
Fortunately, it feels like I am nearing the end of the torturous part. Whether my leaden lump is ready to become a SPARKly nugget of gold, and I begin making quantum LEAPS or I at least change into fools gold and my baby steps start to cover more ground, I am cautiously optimistic!
If you are also feeling like things are a little too hot for you (and I don't mean this summer's heat!) or you feel like an awkward seal out of water, maybe you are also in the midst of a transformative change!
We are all, always, in the midst of change, so if there is a transformation you would like to have occur in your life, it might help to consider the possibility that whatever is happening is actually for your benefit.
It can't hurt to shift that perspective and you never know what might happen!
On 7/7, I committed to playing the game of Sparks & Leaps every day until I turn 60 (45 total days) on Facebook. I know many of you are not on that playground, so let me know if you are curious what I'm up to there and I can send you some copies of posts —they are kind of like mini blogs.
Otherwise, I will send you my love, SEALed with a ❌. This ❌, serves as both a kiss and an ❌-spot.❌-spots are one of the key features of the game of Sparks & Leaps and you will be hearing more about them.
In addition to wishing you a Happy Black Moon/Super Moon/ New Moon, I also send you my best wishes for a lovely Lammas/ Lughnasadh (8/1 & 2 or 8/7 --depending on whether you celebrate the pagan or astrological date).
Translation for those of you who don't celebrate any of that, but are curious : Black Moon is the second New Moon in a month, Super Moon is closest to the Earth in orbit and Lammas/ Lughnasadh is the midpoint between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. Is a time of celebrating the first harvest.
OR if you are in the southern hemisphere, perhaps you are celebrating Imbolc/ Candlemas and Grounhog's Day!
Since my Groundhog's Day Sparks & Leaps attempts at new starts have looked more like the middle of that GHD movie than powerful magic, I'm going to see what kind of first harvest I might glean from the mirror holiday of Lammas!
And if this is sounding more like seal snorting and barking to you, then please just accept my wish for a happy August!
