4 Timeless Quotes From "Women Who Run With The Wolves"
When I was younger, I noticed a common theme in movies was finding the key to how life works. I naively wondered, “after so many years of humans being on earth, why hasn’t someone left behind a roadmap or something?”
While there may not be a specific roadmap to happiness, there are definitely things every human being can relate to. They’re universal truths, and they cross social, racial and cultural barriers.
In celebration of International Women’s Day, here are four quotes that reflect universal lessons from one of my favorite books, Women Who Run With the Wolves. The title says it all, but it’s a book about the female mind and re-learning to trust our instincts. It was written in the 90s when I was an infant without a care in the world, but it’s still relevant for me as a women today. Here are four timeless gems:
We Are Multidimensional
“In a single human being there are many other beings, all with their own values, motives and devices… Rather than corrupt her natural beauty, our work is to build for all these beings a wildish countryside wherein the artists among them can make, lovers love, the healers heal.”
Trust Your Soul, Not Your Ego
“From the time we are born there is a wildish urge within us that desires our souls lead our lives, for the ego can only understand just so much. Imagine the ego on a permanent and relatively short leash; it can only go so far into the mysteries of life and spirit.”
The Ultimate Ultimatum: Choose Yourself Over Others’ Acceptance
“Women have died psychically and spiritually for trying to protect the unsanctioned child, whether it be their art, their lover, their politics their offspring, or their soul life….A culture that requires harm to one’s soul in order to follow the culture’s prescriptions is a very sick culture indeed. This “culture” can be the one a woman lives in, but more damning yet, it can be the one she carries around and complies with within her own mind.”
Use Your Voice How You See Fit, Not How Others Deem Appropriate
“Women’s curiosity was given a negative connotation, whereas men were called investigative. Women were called nosy, whereas men were called inquiring. In reality, trivialization of women’s curiosity so that it seems like nothing more than irksome snooping denies women’s insight, hunches, intuition. It denies all her senses. It attempts to attack her fundamental power.”
Women Who Run With The Wolves is by no means an easy read, but the underlying concepts are so relatable regardless of one’s path. And although the specifics of our journeys may be different, if we take a second, we can see there are universal lessons in every woman’s journey, from growth and defeat, to adversity and triumph.
Here’s to celebrating the paths we’ve paved, and not being afraid to create new ones.
With Ambition and Mischief,
Sam