I gifted myself with some new ink last weekend. And, as with every other tattoo that I have received, there is a pretty predictable healing process. The first couple of days it is sensitive to the touch, and then it starts to shed the dead, surface skin. For the next few days, the dead skin will fall away, and the new skin will be exposed and vulnerable.
This morning I was thinking about the relevance of shedding skin, in relation to my tattoos, and in relation to Life and how we see it. How we experience it. What I relate this to is Surrender, the process of letting go of that which no longer serves us. This could be a person, a job, a housing situation, or a perception about the world. It is shedding of the old, and allowance for the new.
Just like our bodies, we intrinsically know how to shed that which we no longer need, or no longer desire, and to allow the healing to begin. To allow the fresh, new, rejuvinated skin to protect and sustain us. Sometimes, those shedding moments may not be something we anticipated or asked for. I find my deepest lessons to be those kind: the ones that I didn’t think that I wanted.
Yet, after we shed the old, allow it to pass away, we are left with the brilliant, new opportunity to see things differently, for colors to look brighter, to lean into the joy of Life.
The joy of truly living.
Pink Haze and the Star Cluster 