Do you need new skin? Cobra is here to help.

When I was in grade school we lived near the arboretum in Madison, WI.  My “backyard” was a huge nature preserve and I had unlimited places and creatures to explore.  One source of amusement was a big oak tree that had fallen over.  It was there that I would meet my first snake.  A Garter snake.  There always seemed to be lots of snakes around that tree and I had no problem picking them up and playing with them.  I’m not so sure how they felt about it but clearly I was not afraid.  Had they been rattlesnakes I might have been more fearful but I knew they were harmless and I found them fascinating.  Once and a while I would find little green “snake suits” laying about. I marveled at how they could shed their skin and still go on.  How did they live through that process?  I was reminded of this childhood memory when a snake appeared in my meditation today.  But this wasn’t a little garter snake, this was a cobra.

When he first came into view his head was about even with mine with his body coiled into a perfect circle.  He starred at me and his eyes were so glassy I could see my reflection in them.  He began to move his head away from me and his body unraveled as he stretched out on the ground.  He looked back beckoning me to follow…and so I did.  We were in a desert area with rocks and hills but little to no vegetation.  I climbed over a few rocks keeping close behind him until he came to a stop.  Laying in a crevice between two rocks was a perfectly formed “snake suit”.  A bigger and more colorful version than what I had experienced as a child.  He explained:

This used to be me…it’s my old skin.  I shed it when it no longer fit me.  I needed to let it go in order for my new skin to grow.  Now it lays here and eventually will be food for some other being. 

The process I go through…shedding the old skin so the new can come in…happens quite naturally and easily for me.  There is a brief time between the old and the new when my eyes are covered and I cannot see clearly.  This is when I rely on my other senses to help me.  It is only a brief time and is part of my transformation.

You humans seem to struggle with this process.  Today I want to share with you that this letting go is natural and a necessity.  Resistance does not serve you…it only makes the process of renewal more difficult for you.

As you look to what you know, that which is comfortable, remember that as long as you are in your comfortable skin, your new skin cannot come forth.  You must let go in order to receive a new skin.  And I promise you a new skin will come in that will fit you even better than before because it will accommodate how you have grown.

Notice how beautiful my old skin is.  It’s not that it was damaged or defective but it no longer fit me.  It had to go.  It served me well and now I am blessed with beautiful new skin.

I have shed quite a few skins in my life.  I remember that feeling when the events of my daily life didn’t quite fit anymore.  I had learned more, I had grown spiritually and I had developed new desires and passions.  If I was going to embrace those new desires and passions, I would need to let the old skin go to let the new in.  I assure you it was never as easy for me as it was for Cobra. 

There was also that period of time when I was in the dark…so to speak.  When I knew something new was coming but I wasn’t sure what it would look like.  That was when I needed to rely upon my instincts, my intuition and my spiritual guidance.  Oh and trust…I needed to trust ;-). 

Admittedly it is scary to leave a job you have done for years, a relationship, a home town or even a belief system.  But often it is part of our spiritual transformation.  It is necessary for our evolution.  I know that each time I have shed the old skin, the new skin was even better.  Each time I had the courage to let go of that which no longer fit, new positive experiences came to take their place. 

The more you shed, the more you learn that it will be okay.  You are not going backwards…you can only go forwards. 

Are you facing a life transformation? 

Are you ready to shed an old skin to make way for the new? 

Feel free to share your experience here.