After years of cycling regularly, my period failed to come.
I was traveling abroad, while my husband was at home, so I knew I wasn’t pregnant. It dawned on me that this was the Gateway to Menopause, the first sign of my bodily clock winding down.
Finally, after 40 days, my womb started flowing again.
Relief and sadness intermingled within me.
The relief stemmed from remembering the freedom I felt during my pregnancy and breastfeeding years… The sadness grew out of realizing that my flow is preparing to halt.
Are you still cycling?
Are you in the midst of menopause?
And if not, are you consciously preparing for the time your flow will stop…?
What is your relationship with any of the flowing stages you’re in (or with the lack there of?)
In my adolescence and early twenties I cursed my menstruation. I considered it a bother, a nuisance, a drag… Then came the years I spent familiarizing myself with my flow. I learned to embrace it and draw spiritual strength from it. I started appreciating its gifts of intuition, and its invitation to take time for resting, dreaming, creating, delving into my core, and simply Being.
Part of this journey for me was reclaiming different names for the menstrual cycle. MoonTime, Moon Flow, or simply my Flow, were words I used in honor of the connection between our cycles as women, and the cycles of the moon (both 28.5 days long).
These words acknowledge the similarities our bodies share with the moon: the cyclical nature, the ebb and flow, the emotional tides we experience… These are all natural rhythms, which we can ride as waves if we embrace them (or suffer from if we choose to fight them…)
If my cycle is a Moon Flow, than its ceasing is best described as Moon Pause!
Faced with my Moon’s inevitable Pause, I committed to be as conscious as I could during the journey of waning, partly in order to compensate, as best I can, for the unconsciousness that surrounded my first period…
Since most of us were not welcomed into womanhood when we came of age, we each have an opportunity to meet the ending of our cycling years with as much consciousness as we can muster.
How would you honor your transition, when it comes?
Or if your Moon has already paused, how can you honor the years you spent cycling? How would you honor the new phase of womanhood into which you evolved?
In preparation for my Moon Pause, I started gathering charms that represent my gratitude to the power of my blood to give life, and to open the veil into the depth of the Great Mystery. I collected these charms over a few years along my trails, one by one, in preparation for my Moon Pause.
The onset of my first period was an unconscious act, barely witnessed, and certainly not honored. The journey of saying goodbye to my cycling years emerged as the exact opposite: a conscious journey of acknowledgment and reverence to the sacredness of my MoonTime.
Over that journey I realized, once again, that I was not in control… Much like birthing took place in my body’s own time, not mine, so was the winding down of my Womb Clock carried out by its own good rhythm. Teaching me patience and humbling me, yet again, to its miracle.
When my Moon Paused, I was ready. I will write about the ceremony I created in a separate post.
I invite you to open the doorways for honoring all phases of your journey: your Moon Flow years, your travels toward Moon Pause, and the time beyond it: your Wisdom Yeas…
Click HERE for the Menopause E-Course
That will help you honor the Journey toward Menopause, Through, and Beyond it…
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© DeAnna L’am, All Rights Reserved
5 Responses
This is just what I needed to hear, I’m 4 months without my MoonFlow and I’m struggling to connect cyclically I think a Moon pause ceremony is just what I need to do. Thank you x
Looking forward to joining you, Deanna, and all women, globally, to share in this wisdom. Blessings all round! xx
Thanks for this post DeAnna, I so much resonate with it!
Like you at menarche I was totally oblivious of the power and meaning of my blood, but fortunately I tracked it out of my own intuition since the beginning and then in my early 40’s I became aware of the deep meaning of menstruation and made up for lost time and the opportunity to be cycle savvy.
Now like you, I help women understand this mystery and honour it for its meaning and depth and especially honouring the sisterhood need that all women consciously or unconsciously feel about their moon time!
May our efforts give present and future women a better chance to stand in their power and wisdom!
Love from Gabriella and Flying Inspiration
Well – here I am, just waiting and wondering if last month was perhaps The Last Month – except every time I think it is, my body surprises me again! I have been moving from viewing that moment with sadness and fear, to hearing that it can be a wonderful new beginning. So your post above and the summit could not have come at a more opportune moment. Thank-you! I’m looking forward to hearing the talks and entering this phase of my life with a completely renewed perspective!!