23. Glennon

One person who has gotten me through the pandemic is Glennon Doyle. I first found her book Untamed when I was driving from Baltimore to Maine during the pandemic, and needed a companion. I was going to a girl’s weekend. We weren’t really sure we should be getting together in June, but all of us had been quarantined more or less forever, so we decided to do it.

Me, my Mom, my sister, and my daughter all gathered at the Maine cabin for a wonderful week away from the monotonous nothingness of pandemic life.

I packed up my little cocoon of a car with everything I would need so I wouldn’t have to interact with humans. I had food, clothing, and of course a book.  I downloaded one on Audible that Anna had recommended.

 OMG! I couldn’t stop listening! Which worked out well since I had nothing to do for 12 hours but drive a car and listen.

 This book seemed to speak in a language that bypassed my brain and went straight to my heart. Somehow speaking the truth of life. Or at least my truth. Or the truth I needed desperately to hear.

 I found myself making notes upon notes. It seemed like everything she said was something I needed to know, to remember, to become.

 It felt like new pathways were being carved in my brain. It was honest, hilarious, and brave.

 It’s hard for me to summarize this book, but I guess I would say it is about learning to trust ourselves, or more like learning to BE ourselves.   And why that is so freaking hard!

 I know that probably sounds trite, but really, to me, being ourselves is the goal of life. And the only thing we have to offer the world. Our real selves. Not the good version or the polished version or the version we think everyone wants to see. The free, alive, wild, messy us.

 “The braver we are, the luckier we get.” – Glennon Doyle