I recently started reading Women Who Run with the Wolves and frankly, am surprised by the rave reviews and plaudits this work has received. So far it has come across as another piece of pop psychology, laden with annoying terminology and poorly analyzed analogies with little in the way of practical advice. For those of us who already run with the wolves, reading this book quickly turns into an exercise in tedium. Trying to imagine this book through the eyes of her target audience, I have to wonder if they're going to come away with anything more than empty words that inspire only discontent with their current lives.Want to reconnect with the wild spirit that resides in you? Don't bother spending money on a Jungian analysis of fairy tales. If you feel you must have a written book to reconnect with that part of yourself, go out and buy a guidebook to local hiking trails, forests, or waterways. Then use it; go out into the woods and see for yourself what nature is, what wild means. Stay long enough to see the little details, both uplifting and unpleasant. Stand in silence and listen. The woods are never quiet or still. There is always something happening. A woodpecker's work may echo over your head or the wind may rattle dried leaves like so many old bones. Look for the little signs of life and death that surround you... fallen limbs, tender pine saplings, a spider's web. Don't fear what you find, just know it is all a part of that which you seek to reclaim. Your wild spirit does not reside in the pages of a book; it resides in the wilds of the land from which we have arisen and to which we again will return.
