Women Who Run With...Chihuahuas?...

There was a great book written in the 1990’s by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, a Jungian psychologist, called, “Women Who Run With Wolves”. The preface of the book was about strong women in our society, specifically of the archetype of the “Wild Woman”, the female in touch with her primitive side and able to rely on gut feelings to make choices. It was a wonderful book, which hit the stands during the boom of the self-help era and pointed the way for all of us women to let loose and run with the wolves, so to speak.

I thought it was a great book then and I still do now. But I’ve had to scale down my own expectations of myself lately in relationship to my inner Wild Woman. MS is a teacher of this scaling down process and if you don’t learn it the first time around, it will just keep picking away at you until you get it!

If I were to write a similar book about my life and my viewpoints now, I’d have to call it, “Women Who Run With Chihuahuas”. I’m not gung ho about the whole running with wolves thing these days…I like the idea of just being able to keep up with the little dogs. I’m no longer greatly invested in eviscerating or getting in touch with my “primitive side”.

I’m not poo pooing this process for all you wolf pup women out there. I’m just saying for me, I’ve grown into a wise, old canine and I rather like hanging out with those energetic and loveable lap dogs…they’re not nearly as hard to keep up with and they keep me young. They also take more naps than wolves.

I believe these days I may rely on my “gut feelings” more than ever when I am making choices…I rely on my gut and my experience. I simply don’t have the time or the energy to ponder much (nor the memory to recall what it IS I’ve been pondering!). I don’t want to be bogged down with the uncertainty of making choices…I just want to “know” and then to choose.
I think my Wild Woman is still inside me somewhere…she’s just growing into a more even-tempered Crone…a Wise Woman who makes decisive choices based on her own needs and not necessarily the needs of the “pack”. I suppose that’s not really wolf-like at all nor is it necessarily Chihuahua-like. It’s probably closer in nature to a cat!

Women Who Run With Felines…nope, it just won’t work as a book title…