Shedding my skin again......

I have wondered if when a snake slithers along, and drops its skin on the ground, is it painful? Does it hurt them? I have seen this year described as "the year of the snake"...a year 9 about shedding our skin, and out with the old....in every way that can mean, to make room for a 1 year this next year.....a new start, quite literally....and while I see lots of things sometimes....that has resonated so deeply, and watching others around me I would have to say that that is true.....so in the shedding of my skin, it is painful.....I am feeling so many things being eradicated and transformed within me......having to face so much of so much....and some of it is painful......the things I have realized.....or needed to look at....and I am grateful to have had my bravery in tow, to do the work of looking and standing in that discomfort....and move past it all.....moving myself to where I belong.....and facing the things I have needed to, even when it hurt like hell, to give myself a chance to live the life I am seeking.....and gosh hindsight is such a gift right? But again OUCH.....when you can look back and really SEE....SEE what you allowed in your life.....allowed to affect you, tolerated, all of it.....and I am seeing everything so so clearly......and this connection I just made feels like one I am meant to explore.....there are things to be learned here I feel......and he is quite the opposite of any man I have ever met....and do not read that, and think I am walking blindly into being duped;-) Because my eyes are wide open....and I am on full alert, not in a way that will diminish the experience of getting to know him.....or being fully present in wherever we are supposed to go:) But in a way that has sharpened my vision.....and he is definitely wired in a way that is unlike any man I have met.....and I am mindful of how we are building this relationship and what we are letting in.....wanting our friendship to come first and then see.....but I definitely like him, and his energy feels like peace....he is earthy like me....happy to be in the woods and bask in her magic.....and I feel that from him......he has cultivated his own peace.... and that is half the battle.....and shares my discipline in my life by the way he takes care of him, in a way that shows the love he has for himself.....and I only bring him up within this skin shedding business because I see the places I have been haunted in the past, and I am sure that this with mirror some of the things I will have to heal.....and face.....But I know so completely, that I am forever leaving a piece of me behind in this year.....for good.....forever, not able to bring it into the next chapter.....and there is grief in that.....when we transcend our former selves and need to leave a piece in the rearview.....but I am also wildly excited and intoxicated about the possibility that that holds......breaking free of more chains.....in my mind's eye, seeing myself freeing myself of the chains that have been slowly being undone the last 5 years, and that process greatly accelerating this past year......so here I am.....December 1st....the final month of the quickest year ever.....and I am ready for the lessons and growth that December holds, and ready to welcome January 2026 and begin again:) Happy Monday!