‘Women Who Run With the Wolves’, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

What’s it about:

Believe the hype. Embrace its vastness. This book is the handbook for Coming of Age. Kill off your ego, return to yourself and embrace your wildness.

 

What Lynn learned:

·       Sometimes its not the sensitive woman who is sick - it is the wider culture. She is born into a world of ‘fear and spiritual famine’ which shapes her experiences. (p. 68)

·       Endeavours to prove oneself to the ‘chorus of jealous hags is pointless’. I should really stop trying (p. 87)

·       Enlightenment is painful. Ignorance is actually bliss. ‘it is easier to throw away the light and go to sleep’ (p.108).

·       Ask yourself, ‘What does my soul crave?’ when making a decision, espcially towards a lover. One cannot simply choose a lover ‘ a la smorgasbord’. (p. 111). But I do like the idea of a life- smorgasbord.

·       To have love that is driven by ‘flirtation or a pursuit for simple ego-pleasure’ is not the goal – aim for ‘a visible bond composed of the psychoic sinew of edurance’ (p. 131). Aim to be close to another where you ‘are willing to touch the not-beautiful in another, and in ourselves’ (p. 146).

·       Healing is not about forgetting, it is about soothing what has happened – ‘time cannot be erased, but it can be eased’ (p. 182).

·       The word ‘alone’ comes from words ‘all one’, and that means to be ‘wholly one’. Therefore, solitude is time for the soul. (p. 293).

 

Fave quotes:

·       ‘To love means to embrace and at the same time to withstand many endings, and many many beginnings- all in the same relationship.’

·       ‘The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.’

·       ‘When seeking guidance, don't ever listen to the tiny-hearted. Be kind to them, heap them with blessing, cajole them, but do not follow their advice.’

·       ‘Go out in the woods, go out. If you don't go out in the woods nothing will ever happen and your life will never begin’.

·       ‘There is nothing wrong with ducks, I assure them, or with swans. But ducks are ducks and swans are swans. Sometimes to make the point I have to move to other animal metaphors. I like to use mice. What if you were raised by the mice people? But what if you're, say, a swan. Swans and mice hate each other's food for the most part. They each think the other smells funny. They are not interested in spending time together, and if they did, one would be constantly harassing the other.

But what if you, being a swan, had to pretend you were a mouse? What if you had to pretend to be gray and furry and tiny? What you had no long snaky tail to carry in the air on tail-carrying day? What if wherever you went you tried to walk like a mouse, but you waddled instead? What if you tried to talk like a mouse, but insteade out came a honk every time? Wouldn't you be the most miserable creature in the world?’

Why relevant right now:

Goodbye hustle-driven patriachy. Now is the era of the wild woman. The vulnerable, creative self, freed from ego contrictions. Yum.

Interest factor: 4.5/5

Coffee table cred: 3/5

Ignorance of external world while reading: 5/5

Book cover design: 2/5

Help the existential crisis: 5/5