So much of this reminded me of my childhood and my obsession with wolves. I read the book about the girl who lived with them and I remember wanting that, to be far away from my home and out in the wild.
"I’m constantly learning and unlearning, and peeling back layers of conditioning to rewild myself" - this really struck a chord with me 🖤🖤
Wow, so interesting. Do you know what drove your love of wolves? You should write about that, Mesa! Yes, I love that quote, as well. This was one of my fav questionnaires!
Ooooooooo you just gave me a great way in!! I think I will write about it!! :) But to answer your question, I honestly think it was the book Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George that did it. I read it in the 80s in school, here's a blurb from it I found on Goodreads: "Miyax rebels against a home situation she finds intolerable. She runs away toward San Francisco, toward her pen pal, who calls her Julie. But soon Miyax is lost in the Alaskan wilderness, without food, without even a compass. Slowly she is accepted by a pack of Arctic wolves, and she comes to love them as though they were her brothers. With their help, and drawing on her father’s training, she struggles day by day to survive. In the process, she is forced to rethink her past, and to define for herself the traditional riches of Eskimo life: intelligence, fearlessness, and love."
I think what really drew me in to wolves is the pack, the belonging that is automatic. Feeling outcast most of my life, it's what I always longed for, a pack to accept me. <3
How beautiful! I'm not familiar with that book but that's about to change! Yes, yes, write about it. And I sooooooo get the pack mentality. All my life I've had that until where I currently live. I have no pack here and it's taken a toll. Luckily, I still have a pack spread out across, well, the world!
I love this correspondence and am so moved to know my answers to Jane's beautiful questions resonated with you. I mentioned Julie of the Wolves and its impact on the education director of the Wolf Conservation Center in this piece for Project Coyote! The essay explores how writing can foster empathy for our wild kin: https://projectcoyote.org/creating-corridors-how-storytelling-fosters-empathy-for-wild-kin/
I make a point of reading your posts, Jane. This one had me tearing up on most lines. I feel such a kinship with Vanessa and you. Today maks a new beginning, in commenting here and in my own re-wilding. I'm coming up on a 3 yr anniversary to a life changing brain tumor experience, and like both of you feel a deep calling to share more about this journey. Your stories give me courage to begin again- a re-wilding of my own, that has been swept aside lately. A deep bow to you for sharing these pieces and for introducing me to Vanessa. Looking forward to what's coming next here- and at large. x
Oooooh, Deborah! Thank you for sharing your experiences and hopes. Yes to rewilding!! I'm not surprised Vanessa's gorgeous words spoke so deeply to you, they sunk deep-deep-deep into my heart and my bones. I'm glad they arrived in time to honor such an important anniversary. Looking forward to hearing more from you! xx
Wow, Deborah, I'm touched that my words connected with you on such a deep level. Thank you for sharing your own rewilding journey; the courage you're finding is truly inspiring. What a remarkable milestone, and I can only imagine the strength it took to get here. It's wonderful that you feel empowered to share your story again. xo, V
When I was three-ish I lived with my parents and baby brother in an apartment in a Northeastern city.. My imaginary friend was a wolf. I would sit on the wooden stairway outside the apartment door and talk to my wolf. Each night I insisted that my mother set a bowl of milk on the stairs . . . I only remembered that two years ago.
I have always written prose poems, short essays and peculiar vignettes that attempt to recreate in the reader the visceral reaction I myself had to a person, an animal, something in nature -- teeny tiny or vast. As I approached 70, I noticed oral stories emerging from me, as naturally as an exhalation. Lots of them were about how things used to be -- rarely to judge or compare with how things are now, but for the pure pleasure of recounting.
When I turn 81 this October, I will celebrate my birthday with my sister in Boise and her brood and sub-brood, extended family members and close friends, many of whom I met on a previous visit. I want to tell a story to this potential gathering of thirty, to offer wisdom and joy, to make them laugh out loud and to tear up -- all of which I've done in snippets and on the fly in my daily life. It's quite another thing, though to ask today's adults to sit quietly for 20 minutes and simply listen. I've been wondering if I have the nerve . . .
Which brings me to this post. My sister has raved about Women Who Run With the Wolves for years. I peeked in it when it first came out, enmeshed as I was in feminism and feminists, and it seemed too tedious for words. Still, I respect my sister's opinions so much that when I saw the book in a thrift shop a couple years ago, I got it. It's in my house! After reading your post I read the afterword on Story As Medicine. I believe I can use Running With the Wolves as an open-anywhere handbook to uncover the story that has grown me, as the author puts it. And telling that story to settle restless adults may turn out to be as unselfconscious as sitting in a wooden stairwell and offering a bowl of milk.
Ooooooh, Diana, this is so beautiful! I absolutely love that you insisted your mom put out that bowl of milk. And that she did!! I wondered what happened to it each evening.
I've also never read that book. Have long intended to...and it just never happens. So perhaps Vanessa's wise words will be the thing that gets us both reading it!!
I can tell from your comment what a gifted storyteller you are! I've no doubt that whatever story you land on, your extended family will be enthralled! Let us know how it goes! xx
I was an adult when my mother told me about my wolf -- I retained no such memory from childhood, and so the memory that returned to me a couple years ago was of HER telling. I'm sure my mother emptied the bowl after I went to bed, to keep my dream alive -- and to retrieve it for her family's consumption. (My father was a student and every penny and every ounce of milk was precious.) THANK YOU for encouraging my storytelling!
I wondered if that was what she did. What a dear story for both of you!! Yes, yes, yes, you are a natural storyteller, Diana! The gathering is going to be wonderful!!
This is magical, Diana! I agree with Jane - this is gorgeous storytelling! I can picture you talking to your wolf and putting the bowl of milk out with your mother. How special that she kept the enchantment alive.
And yes, Women Who Run With The Wolves is a perfect open-anywhere book. I've read passages to restless adults many times, and it has always cast its spell.
So much of this reminded me of my childhood and my obsession with wolves. I read the book about the girl who lived with them and I remember wanting that, to be far away from my home and out in the wild.
"I’m constantly learning and unlearning, and peeling back layers of conditioning to rewild myself" - this really struck a chord with me 🖤🖤
Wow, so interesting. Do you know what drove your love of wolves? You should write about that, Mesa! Yes, I love that quote, as well. This was one of my fav questionnaires!
Ooooooooo you just gave me a great way in!! I think I will write about it!! :) But to answer your question, I honestly think it was the book Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George that did it. I read it in the 80s in school, here's a blurb from it I found on Goodreads: "Miyax rebels against a home situation she finds intolerable. She runs away toward San Francisco, toward her pen pal, who calls her Julie. But soon Miyax is lost in the Alaskan wilderness, without food, without even a compass. Slowly she is accepted by a pack of Arctic wolves, and she comes to love them as though they were her brothers. With their help, and drawing on her father’s training, she struggles day by day to survive. In the process, she is forced to rethink her past, and to define for herself the traditional riches of Eskimo life: intelligence, fearlessness, and love."
I think what really drew me in to wolves is the pack, the belonging that is automatic. Feeling outcast most of my life, it's what I always longed for, a pack to accept me. <3
How beautiful! I'm not familiar with that book but that's about to change! Yes, yes, write about it. And I sooooooo get the pack mentality. All my life I've had that until where I currently live. I have no pack here and it's taken a toll. Luckily, I still have a pack spread out across, well, the world!
That's how I feel too, a pack spread out, but there nonetheless :) Thanks so much for the encouragement!! Appreciate you!
Same. ❤️
I love this correspondence and am so moved to know my answers to Jane's beautiful questions resonated with you. I mentioned Julie of the Wolves and its impact on the education director of the Wolf Conservation Center in this piece for Project Coyote! The essay explores how writing can foster empathy for our wild kin: https://projectcoyote.org/creating-corridors-how-storytelling-fosters-empathy-for-wild-kin/
I love this so much!!! Thank you Vanessa!! 😍😍😍
I don’t subscribe to many Substacks, but I just subscribed to yours to support your work- interdependence and connection. Doing a small part here.💚
Oh, gosh, thank you so much, Deborah. I'm deeply grateful. Not small at all!! ❤️
I make a point of reading your posts, Jane. This one had me tearing up on most lines. I feel such a kinship with Vanessa and you. Today maks a new beginning, in commenting here and in my own re-wilding. I'm coming up on a 3 yr anniversary to a life changing brain tumor experience, and like both of you feel a deep calling to share more about this journey. Your stories give me courage to begin again- a re-wilding of my own, that has been swept aside lately. A deep bow to you for sharing these pieces and for introducing me to Vanessa. Looking forward to what's coming next here- and at large. x
Oooooh, Deborah! Thank you for sharing your experiences and hopes. Yes to rewilding!! I'm not surprised Vanessa's gorgeous words spoke so deeply to you, they sunk deep-deep-deep into my heart and my bones. I'm glad they arrived in time to honor such an important anniversary. Looking forward to hearing more from you! xx
Wow, Deborah, I'm touched that my words connected with you on such a deep level. Thank you for sharing your own rewilding journey; the courage you're finding is truly inspiring. What a remarkable milestone, and I can only imagine the strength it took to get here. It's wonderful that you feel empowered to share your story again. xo, V
When I was three-ish I lived with my parents and baby brother in an apartment in a Northeastern city.. My imaginary friend was a wolf. I would sit on the wooden stairway outside the apartment door and talk to my wolf. Each night I insisted that my mother set a bowl of milk on the stairs . . . I only remembered that two years ago.
I have always written prose poems, short essays and peculiar vignettes that attempt to recreate in the reader the visceral reaction I myself had to a person, an animal, something in nature -- teeny tiny or vast. As I approached 70, I noticed oral stories emerging from me, as naturally as an exhalation. Lots of them were about how things used to be -- rarely to judge or compare with how things are now, but for the pure pleasure of recounting.
When I turn 81 this October, I will celebrate my birthday with my sister in Boise and her brood and sub-brood, extended family members and close friends, many of whom I met on a previous visit. I want to tell a story to this potential gathering of thirty, to offer wisdom and joy, to make them laugh out loud and to tear up -- all of which I've done in snippets and on the fly in my daily life. It's quite another thing, though to ask today's adults to sit quietly for 20 minutes and simply listen. I've been wondering if I have the nerve . . .
Which brings me to this post. My sister has raved about Women Who Run With the Wolves for years. I peeked in it when it first came out, enmeshed as I was in feminism and feminists, and it seemed too tedious for words. Still, I respect my sister's opinions so much that when I saw the book in a thrift shop a couple years ago, I got it. It's in my house! After reading your post I read the afterword on Story As Medicine. I believe I can use Running With the Wolves as an open-anywhere handbook to uncover the story that has grown me, as the author puts it. And telling that story to settle restless adults may turn out to be as unselfconscious as sitting in a wooden stairwell and offering a bowl of milk.
Ooooooh, Diana, this is so beautiful! I absolutely love that you insisted your mom put out that bowl of milk. And that she did!! I wondered what happened to it each evening.
I've also never read that book. Have long intended to...and it just never happens. So perhaps Vanessa's wise words will be the thing that gets us both reading it!!
I can tell from your comment what a gifted storyteller you are! I've no doubt that whatever story you land on, your extended family will be enthralled! Let us know how it goes! xx
I was an adult when my mother told me about my wolf -- I retained no such memory from childhood, and so the memory that returned to me a couple years ago was of HER telling. I'm sure my mother emptied the bowl after I went to bed, to keep my dream alive -- and to retrieve it for her family's consumption. (My father was a student and every penny and every ounce of milk was precious.) THANK YOU for encouraging my storytelling!
I wondered if that was what she did. What a dear story for both of you!! Yes, yes, yes, you are a natural storyteller, Diana! The gathering is going to be wonderful!!
This is magical, Diana! I agree with Jane - this is gorgeous storytelling! I can picture you talking to your wolf and putting the bowl of milk out with your mother. How special that she kept the enchantment alive.
And yes, Women Who Run With The Wolves is a perfect open-anywhere book. I've read passages to restless adults many times, and it has always cast its spell.
That shirt is amazing. Another wonderful interview!
I know! I want one!! So glad you enjoyed the interview!
The WCC doesn't sell that t-shirt anymore unfortunately but Project Coyote sells some that I also love!: https://projectcoyote.teemill.com/collection/all-products/
Those t-shirts are beautiful!!
Yes, the shirt is the best! It feels good to know my answers resonated. 💚