Your relationship with your body is BOTH the most tangible and intangible thing. It’s been there since you were born, and yet at times, you can completely forget its presence, nay, value to your life. To be a woman, with a woman’s body and her cycle, or the lack thereof adds another dimension of complication, emotion and drama.

We are born, born as women, from women, we grow and grow into our bodies, our minds, our emotion and our potential. We form breasts, our cycles begin, continue, stop, start, are inhibited. We try to do more, to grow, sometimes we lose, and sometimes we win, we might have babies or lose babies. We have hormones that spike, that lull, that come to slow stop or are programmed to shut down. We age, and life gives us an insight into living that if we are lucky to, we get to navigate a few more decades armed with it before our days come to an end.

These are the ups and downs of a linear life, but what happens if it doesn’t happen linearly? It’s devastating. The fragility of life so certain, it is unfathomable. Death and loss shake you to a complete stop, you cease to move, and function in slow motion while everyone else is moving at a fast pace. Whether it’s slow-moving cancer, fast-moving virus or the unseen condition of a soul-defying depression, our bodies will suddenly come to a stop, and those that grew with you are left in your wake, with the wreckage and the void.

A couple months ago we had this January and February pegged as THE BODY ISSUE and we had a host of amazing contributions by special women who have been willing to share about their body and their experiences. We were all set to publish on time (a rarity) and then we were rocked by life or death as the case was in this instance. When I received the devastating news that a close family member had died suddenly, it brought to the forefront the reality and the fragility of the human condition.

We have all gone through some form of this in our lives. Whether you are navigating the new waters of tertiary education, or navigating relationships, old or new, motherhood, singledom, or any of the other complexities of life, we are going through it now. THIS IS THE HUMAN CONDITION.

I know that I am writing from a place of grief now and I don’t mean to bring you down to my level of sadness and loss, but it’s time we speak to it, to share it with each other because you need to know that YOU ARE NOT ALONE. You are not the only one going through it. Your experiences will only carry you so far, perhaps you will learn or gain some new insight from someone else’s experience, but how will that happen if you aren't open to it?!

So, call it serendipitous or something else, this issue reads more like THE LIFE ISSUE. Our data has told us that our primary demographic audience are women ages 25- 50 (but if you are part of the Wrapt community and exist outside of this demographic we want to hear from you!) and so based on that we have a series of articles exploring all things in the fem life cycle; periods, marriage, relationship, consent, body issues, food, fuel and psychology, fashion, of course, loss and aging. We encourage you to give us feedback and share your experiences through the newly enabled comment section or find us here.

Disclaimer: These themes are as tumultuous as the real thing, so trust your personal boundaries.

Warmest regards on this Spring Eve,

Chav

Chava Kuchar

Editor in Chief

Life, Womanhood and Body Wrapt: A Letter from the Editor