As I read through the 22 pages of the introduction for the second time, it occurs to me there is so much ‘GOOD STUFF’ within these pages. My book is already bent and marked up, starred, and asterisked … and I don’t want to just rewrite what Clarissa Pinkola Estes says, because you know, you have the book, too. You can read it. But at the same time, it is written so well that there is very little to add.
My thoughts then are that over the next week or so, to just pick out and highlight a paragraph here and there giving us morsels to ponder.
Please join me on this endeavor as I am sure that words will call out to you as well.
To start us off:
“But in the case of the Wild Woman archetype, in order to fathom her, apprehend her, utilize her offerings, we must be more interested in the thoughts, feelings and endeavors which strengthen women, and adequately count the interior and cultural factors which weaken women … then we can begin to develop in ways never thought possible.” – WWRWTW Introduction Chapter
As a busy, harried mother to four children ranging from three to fourteen years old and going through some personal upheavals and adjustments in life, lately, I have felt a bit like a gerbil on a treadmill. Perpetually tired and struggling through the same mundane, manual labor-intensive ‘breakfast, lunch, dinner, taxi service, pick up, pick up, clean, scold, scold, scold’ cycle each day.
I woke up this morning: Tired. Bone tired and surveying my messy house and dirty dishes, thinking to myself, great, finish taxes and clean up, first on the list. And then feeling my brain spiral down: how much more can I take of this? When exactly do I get a break and a chance to relax?
Exhale.
And then I stood at my back door watching the increasing orange of the sunrise. I remembered how beautiful yesterday was, the start of the Midwest summer, lying in the front yard with my three year old watching bubbles float against the backdrop of clouds.
I thought about my upcoming Moon Lodge with my friends: our next venture of working on singing and drumming together. I stretched and moved my body through a couple of fluid motions.
And I glimpsed her: the Wild Woman, in Spanish, the Rio Abajo Rio (the River Beneath the River) or in Tibet, the Dakini, the dancing force which produces clear-seeing within women. She is within every culture by different names since time began showing us how to be enduring, strong, adaptable, intuitive, creative and playful.
That which you give your attention to: grows.
That which you take your attention away from: withers.
Join us to grow that creative, knowing and intuitive Wild Woman (or Man) within you.
The Book Study is starting now on our Facebook Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WomenWhoRunWithTheWolvesTheGroup/
the divine feminine app: Find a Women's Circle 