17/05/2025
https://www.lauraleethomson.com/bonewomengathering
There’s a story Clarissa Pinkola Estés shares in Women Who Run with the Wolves that has echoed in me for years. It’s a favourite of mine (although I have quite a few favourites).
You might know it: Sealskin, Soulskin — the tale of a Seal Woman whose seal skin is taken by a fisherman. He tells her to come to shore, live with him and in some time he will return her skin. She goes with him, she feels she has no choice really. She does build a lovely life with her husband and child but her soul slowly withers without her seal skin — her essence — until one day, she cannot bare it any longer and she must return to the sea, her home, her soul self, no matter the cost.
I don’t see this as a story about abandoning a life built but rather about remembering who you were before you got lost in all the labels, all the responsibilities, the noise, the busyness.
I had an experience a few weeks ago where I broke out of my day to day pattern and simply drove a different way home through the hills after school drop off. I stopped in at this little shop that’s been on my mind for years, and the magic that unfolded in conversation was a magic that I had forgotten exists, that story is for another time though. But it was while wandering around this shop in the hills, collecting pieces for Rituals, pieces that inspired me and my art that I felt my eyes stinging with tears because in that moment I was tapping into a part of myself that I had forgotten. A part that felt less important than the constant to do list. This is the part of me that had far less responsibilities. The part that would drive through the hills, windows down, smelling the damp earthiness, wind through my hair, taking my time and following my own flow, allowing myself to be inspired by beautiful art and rich conversations with strangers. And I felt her, this part that I had forgotten and I felt her take a breath again, for the first time in more than a decade.
Do you remember a part of yourself that you miss and long for her return? A part that was so present before you learned to put everyone else first...?