Untamed

by Glennon Doyle

a new identity by design instead of default. From my imagination instead of my indoctrination. From my wild instead of from my training.

Thinking is like…it’s like googling your own brain.”

The opposite of sensitive is not brave. It’s not brave to refuse to pay attention, to refuse to notice, to refuse to feel and know and imagine. The opposite of sensitive is insensitive, and that’s no badge of honor.

“It’s not hard decisions that mess up kids, it’s indecision. Your kids need to know which way this is going to go.”

When a woman finally learns that pleasing the world is impossible, she becomes free to learn how to please herself.

The norms were created by somebody, and each of us is somebody.

We can stop asking what the world wants from us and instead ask ourselves what we want for our world.

Brave does not mean feeling afraid and doing it anyway. Brave means living from the inside out. Brave means, in every uncertain moment, turning inward, feeling for the Knowing, and speaking it out loud.

I stopped being a quiet peacekeeper and started being a loud peacemaker. My anger was good.

people who do not suck are people who have failed, dusted themselves off, and tried again. People who do not suck are people who have been hurt, so they have empathy for others who are hurt. People who do not suck are those who have learned from their own mistakes by dealing with the consequences. People who do not suck are people who have learned how to win with humility and how to lose with dignity.

Our memo has led us to steal from our children the one thing that will allow them to become strong people: struggle.

“Girls are not for conquering. They do not exist to play supporting roles in the stories of men. They exist all on their own.”

Privilege is being born on third base. Ignorant privilege is thinking you’re there because you hit a triple. Malicious privilege is complaining that those starving outside the ballpark aren’t waiting patiently enough.

Unasked questions become prejudices.

I don’t think that gayness is contagious. But I am certain that freedom is.

There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in. —Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The happier I become, the happier my children seem to become.

It is not honorable for a tree to wilt and shrink and disappear. It’s not honorable for a woman to, either.