Dear Reader:

Of all the Ya’s Libby wins, hands down, with the funniest expressions. I am used to hearing her response to ” How are you doing Libby?” ( if I call too early in the morning) … her standard reply…” I’m still coming to myself .” ( meaning she’s still in bed or hasn’t had her first cup of coffee yet.)

But these days Libby apparently has extended her ” coming to myself” to include her personal ” molting” season. Like the Hermit crab she is burying herself into a state of inertia with her shell intact.

So now if I call and ask about her… Libby responds ” I am in my molting season.” (Most of us connect this term to animals who shed feathers, hair, skin, or shells to make way for new growth. ) After much consideration …Libby is right on point.

Don’t most of us perceive the post-Christmas holiday period as a let-down, blah, cold,dreary wintry season… a low-key period to hunker down and bury ourselves in sedentary activities where less of everything is best.

(Of course Libby is the first to admit that only retirees and select other groups can partake time-wise in this self-awareness endeavor-it really is a gift of time of which we retirees are eternally grateful!)

A few years back Libby ended up caring for some hermit crabs in a ten gallon glass container ( what grandmothers won’t do for their grandchildren) and discovering a new perspective on life in her generous undertaking.

One day the crabs just disappeared… she was in a panic thinking they had somehow gotten out and were hiding throughout the house. She quickly researched and realized it was their molting time-they had buried themselves near the bottom of the sand and were shedding their first skeletal ” armor ” to be replaced by a larger one requiring a larger shell to inhabit upon their return to the surface. It was a time of new growth and new perspective.

Now Libby has realized that subconsciously this is what she is doing-taking time to slow down after the somewhat turbulent Christmas holiday activities/ Rude Covid interruptions , etc. ) to spend time alone to allow for new meditation and growth to take place. Of course, as she laughingly noted… she just crawls down deeper into bed covers!

So until tomorrow… Let us all take a lesson from the Hermit crabs and Libby-Let us learn to take time for ourselves to slow down, pull back, shed the past, welcome new growth and perspectives on life. Don’t hesitate to answer the daily habitual question by friends and strangers alike… ” How are you?” with the response ” Good thank you… I am in my molting season.”

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Looking at the world through new eyes allows us to see light -even prisms of light -where once none existed.