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I’ve always loved fairy tales, myths—stories. My mother and father told and read me stories when I was a child. When I learned to read, stories—fairy tales, comic books, movies—were my first love. Although some cultures, those of Latin America, of middle Europe, of Africa, still pass stories along, American culture tends to think of stories as only the stuff of childhood and that these things should be left behind us after we come of age. That is a mistake, I believe.—an attitude that misses the point of stories.
What is it about stories that I love…that people love? Why do they transfix us so? I believe the answer lies in this: Stories are a vessel, a construct, a vehicle that we have deliberately created to transport, through time and space for ourselves and each other, precious and essential information for living—ideas, knowings, wisdom, consciousness, learning, hope, touch and connection, nourishment and warmth, support and encouragement to keep going.
They were meant to give us heart as we pick our way over the paths of life. If we tell them to each other as adults and we listen, they reveal the markers of life’s journeys: growing up, adulthood, growing old, birth and rebirth, trials and ordeals, dangers and safe harbors, loss and endurance, sacrifice and hope, transformation and light.
This is certainly true of the book of stories I have just finished reading called Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. I recommend its hope to the defeated, the cynical, the pessimist. I recommend its wisdom to the curious, the sophisticate, the intellectual. I recommend its love and warmth to the isolated, the fearful, the lonely and disconnected. It is a wonderful book: Comforting. Supportive. Encouraging. Challenging.
Using multicultural myths, fairy tales, folk tales, and stories, Dr. Estes’ book helps women reconnect with our buried healthy, instinctual selves and inner lives. The stories that Estes has collected and retells in her book are fascinating; the explanations of what the stories mean are intriguing. They whisper the secrets of a woman’s core being, her spirit, her soul…how to discover, find, reclaim my true feminine nature, how to heal those precious gifts of feminine instinct, knowing, wisdom (“wildness”) that has been mislaid, buried, waylaid, stolen, denied. Her stories console me, reassure me, teach me to rely on and trust my instincts. They gently release me from what has bound me: social convention, cultural roles, childhood wounds, family history, adult injuries, shame, guilt, secrets, betrayals, fears, traps, learned coping behaviors that have turned into strangling vines.
End Part I
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