My Wildish Woman

So the past few days I've been re-reading my well-worn copy of Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. It keeps me on an even keel, especially when things are going a little wonky with my life. And I recall some advice when I was in a business seminar, that our company logos should say something about what our business sells/does. I sell handspun yarn and fiber and teach handspinning (and sometimes weaving). However, I choose my logo (wolfprints) and name (Feistywoman) so I could say something about what my business does--it tells me that I've finally come full-circle, that I've recognized my Wildish Woman, that there's a reason the wolf in American Indian birth symbology is my totem, and that I will never again allow myself to be declawed. I have not behaved as my family would have liked, I have not behaved like a lot of the other moms in my area, and I almost died trying to follow the career that my family thought was "fitting" for me. And I stopped doing those things a couple of decades ago and have been immensely happy ever since. Not that there hasn't been a price to pay for this obstinate following of my muse. It's never easy to swim against the tide and takes it's toll on your energy. But when you reach the goal, it's ever-so-much sweeter than if you had settled for the average.

"The hallmark of the wild nature is that it goes on. It perseveres." (WWRWTW, Estes, p. 203)