Sealskin Woman

I started vacation with a flat tire and ended it with stomach flu.  Fortunately, the time between the tire and stomach was pretty good.  I started with going to Scotia House in Newport to a workshop my friend, Colleen did for women based on a story from the book, Women Who Run With the Wolves.  It is sort of like an adult (I don't mean sexual here)  fairy tale book.  In this book she analyzes fairy tales throughout the world and what the lesson is in the tale.  An exerpt from the book,

  "The seal is one of the most beautiful of all symbols for the wild soul.  Like the instinctual nature of women, seals are peculiar creatures who have evolved and adapted over eons.  Like the seal woman, actual seals only come onto the land in order to breed and nurse.  The mother seal is intensely devoted to her pup for about two months, loving, guarding, and feeding it solely from her own body stores.  During this time, the thirty-pound pup quadruples in weight.  Then the mother swims out to sea and the now viable and grown pup begins an independent life." (Women Who Run With the Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes) 

The lesson from the story is that women give up their pelts for unsatisfying relationships, being out of touch with their creative side and neglecting their art and basic needs.  In this story, the seal woman loses her pelt to be with a lonely man.  After 7 years with this man, she begins to dry up and reclaims her skin and goes back to the ocean where she belongs.

"We know poor choice occurs in various ways.  One woman marries too early.  Another becomes pregnant too  young.  Another goes with a bad mate.  Another gives up her art to "have things."  Another is seduced by any number of illusions, another by promises, another by being too much "being good" and not enough soul, yet another by too much airiness and not enough earthiness." (Women Who Run With the Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes)