Episode 5: Initiated by Life
A Conversation with Lianne Raymond on Midlife, Mentoring, and the Maturation of Women
In this soul-nourishing episode of The Midlife Ripening Podcast, I’m joined by my longtime coach and mentor, Lianne Raymond—a life poet and a deeply wise guide for what it means to grow into our fullest potential.
Lianne invites us to rethink midlife as a sacred initiation offered by life itself. We talk about menopause, matriarchy, mentorship, and the cultural hunger for mature presence. We explore how women can move from self-help toward rhythm, agency, and expression.
Whether you’re navigating perimenopause, questioning your next era, or longing to reclaim your own authority, this conversation offers a balm.
If you’re curious what ripening into elderhood might make possible…
This episode is for you.
In this episode, we explore:
What nature teaches us about rhythm, growth, and unfolding
How nature can be an initiation—even when culture fails us
Why women don’t need to be fixed, and how self-help can keep us small
Elderhood, matriarchy, and feeding the village from our harvest
The longer, deeper lineage of coaching as soul-midwifery
Bookmarks
“Women are lucky. Nature provides us with initiation, even when culture doesn’t.” — LR
“That kind of presence—where everyone around you feels more possible—is our birthright.” — LR
“I think women have been midwifing each other’s souls forever. We just call it coaching now.” — LR
Seed to carry with you:
"A Summer's Singing" by Lorna Crozier, from Everything Arrives at the Light (McClelland & Stewart, 1995).
Where does that singing start, you know,
that thin sound—almost pure light?
Not the birds at false dawn or their song
when morning comes, feathered throats
warm with meaning. A different kind of music.
Listen, it is somewhere near you.
In the heart, emptied of fear,
stubbornly in love
with itself at last, the old
desires a ruined chorus,
a radiant bloody choir.
Where does the singing start?
Here, where you are, there’s room
between your heartbeats,
as if everything you have ever been
begins, inside, to sing.
~ Lorna Crozier
Connect with Lianne Raymond:
Follow Lianne’s work at https://www.lianneraymond.com/, or on Instagram, @lianneraymond.
