Be a Wild Woman

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Really wild, doesn't mean reactionary. It means to feel the life force coming up inside you and to honor it regardless of where it may take you. Free means unhampered by mores and pressures from the outside, creating an open space for that wildness to come through. You are free to say "yes" as well as "No". You are free to follow your own trail, whether it appears wild or tame. Because wildness isn't an idea. It is a life force. It is atunement with Spirit. It is an ear to the small voice inside that leads you on your very own path.

And if this path is completely authentically wild and free, it will surprise even you. You may think, "Wildness is (this) but I am leaning toward (this)". But to follow your leaning is wildness. To follow your mind's definition of wildness is tameness.

Wildness is: Trusting your instinctual nature. Trusting your intuition. Trusting your heart. Growling when you "should" keep your mouth shut. Keeping your mouth shut when you sense it is better. Saying, "my fur is bristling and my ears are atuned and my nose is to the wind", when you are told, "There is nothing the matter." Being at peace and trusting your safety even though you are told you are walking a dangerous path. Learning that caution is not necessarily fearful. Wanting what you want, not what you "should" want. Laughing, crying, stomping, dancing, howling, sniffing, growling, scratching, loving, running free, taking naps, and walking on tall mesas in the light of the full moon when everyone else is sleeping. Being dangerous in our unpredictableness. Granting others the same.

Being willing to hear and speak your differences because you know that a pack is so much stronger than one small or even large individual. Being willing to trust the pack's wisdom and receive all the unique points of view. Take them in, try them on, see where they fit and don't fit. Give when that is what is needed and take when you need to take. Know that a good alpha wolf will listen to and receive all the whines and growlings of the pack and will make decisions from a combination of her or his wisdom/instinct/ intuition after all these other elements have been received. Support this kind of authority, because it will support you--'author' you--into a stronger and stronger sense of your own being in relationship to all the other beings.

We are here, because each of us in our own way is releasing the fetters of a lifetime of cultural impediments to our wildness. We are here because we long to share the miracles of our unfolding lives in this context.

We will grow and evolve and keep our involvement organic so that what is wild today will not become the more of tomorrow. Wildness is innocent. It follows no preconceived notion, even if that is a notion of wildness. And we will support the becoming of each other through the integrity of our own beings.



She is more than just half my psyche; wild woman is the essence of my soul... of who I am.

She is the strength who carries me when I need to be carried;
She is the playful one who encourages me to take time off to romp in the snow when I take life too seriously;
She is my fiercely loyal creature, the one who will not let any danger... be it human or otherwise... encroach upon my true "self" or take me from myself;
She is the survivor when all else appears lost;
She is, in reality, the best part of me... that which makes all the other dimensions of my self more loving, more giving, a bit more unpredictable, more sure of herself, and more unique... in a word, she makes me better than what I would be without her as part of "me."



Wild Woman sits with her legs open (when she's got pants or a long skirt on) because no matter what society says, sitting with your legs open is definitely more comfortable than sitting with them closed. And when someone tells her that "It is not feminine for a lady to sit with her legs open," she looks them straight in the eye in a firm voice and asks, "what does feminine mean?" and "define lady." Wild Woman always questions the oppressive roles patriarchy assigns to women, challenges them and knocks them over. Wild Woman makes her own definitions on what it means to be a woman.

Wild Woman is unharnessed positive energy that is full of love for her self (first) and for others. This energy is abundant and flows freely to everyone. Wild Woman loves all of nature and wild things and seeks to preserve them the best she can.

Wild Woman is in touch with her emotions and is able to express them freely. She is not ashamed of her anger and even if she fears it at times, she does express it (when appropriate), and if someone tells her that anger is not appropriate for a woman, she helps them to examine their own fear that is causing them to make that statement. And the tears she sheds are big and salty and so cleansing. And happiness and all other emotions are ever so present.

Wild Woman loves other women. She seeks to forge connections with her sisters and to invalidate the patriarchy's subconsious desire to keep women apart (as patriarchy is well aware that when women bond together in sisterhood, a powerful force is released that can possibly cause patriarchy to come tumbling down). She nutures her sisters and willingly takes their nuturing in return, growing in leaps and bounds while she helps her sisters to grow.

Wild Woman is assertive and asks for what she wants from people and from life, and if necessary, sometimes just goes out and grabs it. Wild Woman seeks to teach assertiveness to her wild sisters and her children.

Wild Woman is intuitive and sensitive. She trusts her intuition to tell her when someone she encounters will not nuture her soul and then she acts accordingly. She is sensitive to her surroundings too.

I am Wild Woman - growing, becoming, dancing, singing, laughing.



Who is Wild Woman? This is hard to answer because the question seems to invite me to use nouns or adjectives to describe her, but she wants to be described using verbs, or hand motions, or metaphors.

She says: "Don't pin me down! Not yet." And jumps away.

She is the way the morning fog in San Mateo brightened and melted into the clear sky in San Bruno this morning as I drove into work.

She's a cloud of white birds circling over Crystal Springs Lake, in the one patch of sunlight beaming down in a ribbon through the morning mist.

She's the way eucalyptus nuts smell. Not quite like the cough drops. Enticing and energizing but not packaged. Once I put some crushed eucalyptus nuts on top of my coffee-maker in my office, with a pot full of valerian-mint tea. A co-worker came in, wrinkled his nose and said: "Who died?" To me it smelled great.
She's the impulse I have to spend my lunch hour walking through San Francisco instead of eating chili in the cafeteria.

>Sometimes I drive by some beautiful sight and I just shout with joy. Or I think of the things I feel comfortable doing now, like knowing what I want and need, and knowing how I feel, that I couldn't do very well as a child.

A thought occurred to me about the word (from the concept) WILD
It means un-tamed
as if taming
the forcing of another to one's will
were to be desired
I was never tamed
(much to the elders' chagrin [grin])
but
to my eyes
those little kids
and these more grown up folks today
who are as if pressed out of
some TAMING MOLD
obedient, subservient and
Oh so crippled and repressed
are ill, wounded by
the ruler in us that would subjugate
what is seen as the OTHER
when all along
there has been
no I and Thou
no this or that if ought, perhaps
just those who ARE
and those who WANT
(things to be otherwise)

And it is these wanters
who call those who simply are
Wild.

I would rather
think of us
and me
as free
as merely living our Selves
and those who call us Wild
(as if a thing of dread)
"imprisoned mice"<

"Wild" had been the state of the universe
when born and rolling eons long
But only when the wanters come
do they make judgement
and pronounce Nature Wild
UnTamed

Why tame?


I have never really considered the wild woman in myself and who she is and why she is I just have always known she is...and I've never minded. I like being outrageous and outspoken and opininated.

I want to share with you a comment that my 20 year old daughter Laetitia made about her three and a half year old sister Ariele: "She is lucky to have been born in this stage of your life. She is completely wild and you let her be, because for you today wild is positive, almost sacred, and you recognize in her the wildness which it took you so many years to be in touch with."

Yes, this is what Wild means to me: to be who you are, to become who you are, to cherish it because it means that you love and respect yourself.

Not an easy task, especially when the Wild was always for me associated with negative feedback from more "tamed" family members or other people.

This is why WWRWW found such a resonnance in me: it celebrates the Wild, encourages us to live it, to be it, to recognize it, to love it. I felt validated in my inner being when I was reading the book... and still find great inspiration and resources in its pages years later.