Wildness

Life here is not all sunshine and beaches.
Like many women I sometimes find myself spending too much time

Here

and doing This

or going to buy This

so I can make This

It’s all too easy to be lulled into a snare of my own making.
The temptation then is to turn to

This

or even This

When I want to be one of These

I read these words and felt them kindle some inner fire

“A healthy woman is much like a wolf: robust, strong life-force, life-giving, territorially aware, inventive, loyal, roving. Yet separation from the wildish nature causes a woman’s personality to become meagre, thin, ghostly, spectral. We are not meant to be puny with frail hair and inability to leap up, inability to chase, to birth, to create a life. When women’s lives are in stasis, in ennui, it is always time for the wildish woman to emerge, it is time for the creating function of the psyche to flood the delta”                       Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Puny with frail hair, thin, spectral and ghostly. Yes, that’s how I’ve been feeling here lately.
And irritable!
This book has been on my shelf for more than ten years – only now am I ready to read it

So….it’s time to seek out a high place and howl at the moon!

PS As I wrote those words the Resident Adolescent yet again put on the music system with throbbing bass at top volume. My wolf leapt up, loped downstairs and snarled!

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6 thoughts on “Wildness

  1. Oooh, I am so impressed that you can make truita de patata so quickly! Took me AGES to learn how to do that.

    Good on you for loping down. Gotta declare your rights a bit too.

  2. Oh I can fair toss them out now – loads of practice and three teachers! I actually timed myself today and it took 40 minutes preparing time although a bit longer if I include the time for letting the potatoes and onions drain off the oil, and the ‘sitting’ time for the whole mixture before actually cooking it. Turned it three times by the way. One friends mother does it 7 times!!!
    Ps I am loving this book – it could be a life changer. K x

  3. Please can someone post the recipe for truita de patata.
    it looks delicious in the photograph.

    Pearl x

  4. That was a quick response to my post, Kate. The cylindrical pot was bought and then mosaiced by D. Have a look at Label “Garden Art” to see more.

    Loved the Clarissa book when it first came out. I was living alone at the time, designing art and drama therapy groups for the rehab unit….it meant a lot to me.

    Do so relate to those times when we seem caught up in the round of domesticity. Remember the 7 point plan for a calmer life:

    Do one thing at a time

    Listen without interrupting

    Escape into books that demand concentration

    Eat slowly and savour the food

    Find a private retreat in the home

    Plan some idleness every day

    Avoid hurry by every conceivable measure.

    I especially like no. 6, and once chosen can forget about the guilt trip!

  5. I don’t know how I’ve missed your last few posts, but I have. My feeder must not be working correctly. Anyway…I, too, have Women Who Run With The Wolves on my reading list this summer. Each time I pick it up, I am stunned by the prose and the feelings behind them. I can barely read a few paragraphs without having to put it down and absorb. I have it on my iPod as well, but I am sure it must be a condensed version.

  6. Me too! I have to stop and wonder every few sentences. I want to mark the book with red pen but in the end it would mean underlining almost all of it! Great we can share it together a bit? K x

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