I was born adventurous and free-spirited. Frolicking in field and forest, staying close to nature. As a young girl, I was enveloped by the Feminine. Flowers, critters, babes, extended kin. Garden, waterways, song, cultural and religious traditions. The youngest of four girls, I was encircled by women.

I went to school to study everything I could about the World of Women, graduating with a degree in Gender Studies.

And still… I didn’t see this coming.

My career centered on helping women… at domestic violence shelters, through recovery programs for young girls, advocating for teen moms, supporting low-income women, guiding breastfeeding mothers, resourcing for their families and babes.

And still… I didn’t see this coming.

I built a private practice when I was pregnant with my first child, to celebrate and honor the Feminine. Holding groups, ceremonies and classes for women, pregnant mommas, mothers of boys, Sisterhood circles.

And still… I didn’t see this coming.

Like a tidal wave, each woman is carried to the threshold of a world she didn’t see coming. A time and place in her journey when deeper life beckons, trembles, calls out in the night, and erupts through her soul.

This is commonly known as midlife. A bridge between two worlds.

Between…

• Who you are as a result of your upbringing, culture, childhood, education, lineage, beliefs, and patterns.
• And who you are becoming (and born to be), as a result of what’s growing from within.

Rebirth begins to crown its head in a woman’s mid-thirties to early forties. It’s like the skin she’s been living in no longer fits. Her body and psyche dissolve, as inner heat erupts, calling for an overhaul of her life.

A woman will be encouraged to turn outward at this stage. To doctors, healers, teachers, supplements and books. Seeking something outside her for instruction on how to navigate this very personal transition and passage. Few areas in our modern culture support midlife women to get in touch with what they’re built of and for. To aid us in consciously working with what’s dying and being reborn, so we can collaborate with what’s coming alive inside of us.

In our modern fast-paced world, often this passage is filled with intense yearning for a way out. Understandably, as chaos disrupts, and a woman’s body enters a passage that can be down-right painful, life defying and uncomfortable. A woman in midlife is rarely supported in turning towards this potent opportunity to reclaim herself, and set the stage for the rest of her life. As signs and symptoms of her body, relations and brain dramatically change, there’s an opportunity awaiting her, to become the healer of herself. To rest, restore and be safeguarded in who she naturally is.

Midlife is a call to let go of what was. And what’s no longer working. To engage and collaborate with the nature of life to reveal how things decompose, rebuild and regrow. To learn how we can truly heal and defy what we were told we could be.

This season in a woman’s life can erupt like a volcano turning everything to ash. It can swirl like a tornado leaving little of the former behind. It can flow like a gentle current upon a bubbling and meandering stream. This time of change is as unique as each woman is and what she comes from. And every woman will be called. Called to remake herself from the seed of her own heart’s deepest yearning.

It’s up to each woman and her body. It’s written in the stars and her ancestry. It’s held in the care of how she’s willing to show up for herself. Giving loving attention to the parts and places that may never have seen the light of day. In my work I’ve found that the most dramatic difference for a woman receiving the joyful fruition of her midlife passage, is how well she is supported. And how much she is honored.

What I never saw coming, was the journey I’d go through to awaken and reclaim my own power. To be remade by the wisdom calling to me from the moment I took my first breath. A wisdom that knew I wasn’t separate from life, creation and the growth happening inside. A wisdom that has guided me through each sacred and humbling stage of being rebuilt, restored, recycled… into a chiseled down essential version of who I am. That’s just beginning to reemerge.

I am known as a Midwife for Midlife.

Helping women birth the most important person they will ever labor for.

Themselves.

Because as female-identified beings, we are not taught the landscape of how to tend and care for all that lives within. We are encouraged, validated and programed to turn outward. Bringing our soft hearts, cosmic wisdom and caring hands to the outer world.

There comes a time in every woman’s life when what she has toiled for and built, asks to be restored from inside. It is in this place that each woman is invited to let go of her former ways, so she can become her own medicine of love.

Who we are born to be doesn’t come all in one piece. Or through the blink of an eye. It most often happens through a steady turning within. And step-by-step moments of taking our time to get closer to who we are. Listening tenderly to that. Being willing to love the unlovable. Being willing to gather up all aspects of self the world has deemed unworthy and unvaluable. Being willing to not run when the intensity of one’s own beauty and becoming is more than the body and brain can endure.

It is then, as a woman sits inside her own soul, calling it home, that she’s ready. Ready to create the world that’s been whispering from inside since she took her first breath, saying, “I never saw this coming.”

 

Wanna chat about what you didn’t see coming…? Schedule your Midlife Transformation Call here.

 

Sharon Ann Rose is an author, wise woman, modern day Priestess, and visionary leader who’s worked in the field of Feminine Wisdom for more than twenty years. She helps soul-sensitive, creative women in midlife and beyond to rebirth themselves, and reclaim their power, beauty, and lasting legacy. She’s the author of Faces of the Mother: A Journey, A Collaboration, A Feminine Restoration, and has created several workbooks and courses. Sharon shares one-on-one mentorship, Sisterhood empowerment, Feminine Leadership training, and offers retreats across the country. Walking barefoot and staring at the sky are her favorite pastimes. Learn more about her unique care at www.sharonannrose.com.