On Shedding and Transformation

Why we should center care during change: lessons from scorpions.

You’ve died already. Even if not physically, parts of you have died or were left behind. Death as Ending, Death as New Beginning, Death as Another Chance, Death as The Door That Closes When Another One Opens. Death as Transformation. 

I have had to reframe the concept of Death mainly because of my fear of it (very human) and I began to get to know this ‘reframed’ version of it as I recovered from a heartbreak five years ago. I was grieving as if someone had died, and even if that person had not died physically, that relationship had, and that connection had. There was space for transforming both things, but the romantic version of us was caput. 

The non-physical death I am speaking about today is the shedding of old skin, call it human molting. Molting is the shedding of the exoskeleton of the previous life stage. Many animals do it, and so do we. Humans are constantly shedding skin and hair cells, but in very small amounts and over long periods, so we don’t realise it. But today, we are drawing lessons from the protagonist of this month: THE SCORPION!