Our book club selection from May was Untamed by Glennon Doyle, and I get the honour to share some of my thoughts.
While I read this book, I felt an urgency to pull out quotes from the book as they resonated so deeply with my own experience as a woman, as a human, as someone creating their own path, coming out. So many amazing quotes that would resonate with anyone, regardless of their story.
The quotes that jumped off the page for me:
- “Will we be brave enough to unlock ourselves? Will we be brave enough to see ourselves free? Will we finally step out of our cages and say to ourselves, to our people, and to the world: Here I am.” (p.47)
- “I am here to become truer, more beautiful version of myself again and again forever. To be alive is be in a perpetual state of evolution. Whether I like it or not, pain is the fuel of Revolution. Everything I need to become the woman I’m meant to be next is inside my feelings of now. Life is alchemy, and emotions are the fire that turns me to gold. I will continue to become only if I resist extinguishing myself a million time a day. If I can sit in the fire of my own feelings, I will keep becoming.” (p.51)
- “When a woman finally learns that pleasing the world is impossible, she becomes free to learn how to please herself.” (p.56)
- “I quit using words to explain myself to the world. This is the most revolutionary thing a woman can do: the next precise thing, one thing at a time, without asking for permission or offering explanation. This way of life is thrilling.”
- “I understand now that no one else in the world knows what I should do. (No one else). Because no one has ever lived or will ever live this life I am attempting to live, with my gifts and challenges and past and people. Every life is an unprecedented experiment. This life is mine alone. So I have stopped asking people for directions to a place they’ve never been. There is no map. We are all pioneers.” (p.60)
- “There is a life meant for u that is truer than the one u r living. But in order to have it, u will have to forge it yourself. U will have to create on the outside what u are imagining on the inside. Only u can bring it forth. And it (may) cost u everything.” (p.64)
- “If we refuse to wait to die and “go to heaven” and instead find heaven inside us and give birth to it here and now. If we work to make the vision of the unseen order swelling inside us visible in our lives, homes, and nations, we will make reality more beautiful. On Earth as it is in heaven. In our material world as it is in our imagination.” (p.65)
- “The deepest truth is not what we can see but what we can imagine.” (p.65)
- “What is the truest, most beautiful story about your life u can imagine?” (p.68)
- “The truest, most beautiful life never promises to be an easy one. We need to let go of the lie that it’s supposed to be…. she dares to utter her inner whisper out loud. She shares her discontent with another human being.” (p.70)
- “It might take us a lifetime. Luckily a lifetime is exactly how long we have.”
- “Let’s conjure up, from the depths of our souls:
- -the truest, most beautiful lives we can imagine
- -the truest, most beautiful families we can fathom
- -the truest, most beautiful world we can hope for”
- “Let’s put it on paper:
- -lets look at what we’ve written and decide that these are not pipe dreams; these are our marching orders. These are the blueprints of our lives, our families, and the world.”
- “May the invisible order become visible. May our dreams become our plans.” (p.71)
- “…until on their deathbed and wonder: what kind of life/relationship/family/job/
world might I have created if only I’d been braver?” (p.74) - “If we are truly alive, we are constantly losing who we just were, what we just built, what we just believed, what we just need to be true.” (p.74)
- “Freedom is creating your own existence from scratch.” (p.92)
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“Doing our best now is an active thing, and so is knowing better. We don’t show up and wait to magically know better. We show up and then, when we are corrected, we keep working. We listen hard so we can know better next time. We seek out teachers so we can know better next time. Learning to know better is a commitment. We will only know better if we continue unbecoming.” (p.219)
What I learned from reading this book is to change my thoughts about things, be creative, and most of all try to be honest with at least myself right now. I need to do something vs feeling overwhelmed with everything and not change anything and it resonated so clearly for me that this is my life, and I need to live it for me as I can’t seem to make most happy by editing myself. And as we journey as parents, may we lay more elegant ideas around our children’s necks.
Now in the midst of Pride Month, I feel more me, I’ve shared in community and I continue to grow. Would love to hear your thoughts on this book and what your take aways are! Shoot us a message!