I have been reading Glennon Doyle’s new memoir Untamed for about a week now. I still have about thirty pages left but my god, I can already say it is one of my favorite books.

I also read Doyle’s memoir Love Warrior when it first came out in 2016. I highlighted it and wrote notes in the margins and felt transformed by her ideas. Doyle’s husband (now ex-husband) had admitted to sleeping with other women since the beginning of their marriage, and by book’s end, they had renewed their commitment to each other and appeared to be enjoying their Happily Ever After.

Shortly after I finished Love Warrior, I learned that Doyle was divorcing her husband, and I remember thinking, WTF? Why did I just read a memoir about saving her marriage if she was going to divorce the guy so soon after publication?

So when I first heard about Untamed, I was not interested. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice… But after I heard Brown’s interview of Doyle on the Unlocking Us podcast, I knew I had to read Untamed. Actually, that’s not entirely correct. Within the five minutes of listening to the interview, I knew I had to read Untamed. I had ordered the book from Amazon long before I finished listening to the interview.

I know understand that writing the Love Warrior memoir was part of Doyle’s personal journey. If you have not read Love Warrior, you could definitely read Untamed first. But having read Love Warrior, I really appreciate just far Doyle has come. It is inspiring. She is a work a progress, just like all humans, and she is not afraid to let us see the work of her life before it is finished.

I’m not going to try to write a proper review since there are already over 1,000 reviews of Untamed on Amazon. But here are some quotes that made my jaw hang open:

If you are uncomfortable–in deep pain, angry, yearning, confused–you don’t have a problem, you have a life. Being human is not hard because you’re doing it wrong, it’s heard because you are doing it right. You will never change the fact that being human is hard, so you must change your idea that it was ever supposed to be easy.

Untamed, pg. 93

Oh, I could just sit here and reread that quote all day. Maybe I should. (No, wait, the kids will need to be fed. They are eating like hobbits during quarantine!) But I feel like I have spent so much of my life trying to numb the uncomfortable feelings, but those are the feelings that mean I am living my life.

Another quote:

Brave is not asking the crowd what is brave. Brave is deciding for oneself.

Untamed, pg. 106

I am pulling out these quotes because Untamed shone a brilliant radiant light that I needed. It flooded my heart with love and filled my brain with ideas I needed. But as I cite these quotes, I feel like I am circling the thing I want to do, without actually doing it.

I read a lot of nonfiction books that I think of as self-help, but that fall into lots of different genres: memoirs like Untamed; books about spirituality (also Untamed); psychology; parenting (Untamed again); and philosophy (definitely Untamed). And I often think: I should write several blog posts about this book so that I can internalize what I have learned. Now I am actually blogging nearly every day. Maybe it’s time I do what I have been thinking I should do for several years?

This idea is coming from what I think of as my intuition. Glennon Doyle calls it The Knowing. Whatever you want to call it, I think it is my connection to the divine, sending me ideas that lead me on the adventure that is my life. And my intuition just keeps popping into my mind, suggesting that I write about the book I am reading. It has been doing this for years. And I always come up with an excuse (Pippa needs help with homework! I have to fold the laundry! The dishes are dirty!) and then I’m reading another book and the moment has passed.

I don’t want to let the moment pass again.

Today, I waxed poetic about Untamed but tomorrow, I’m going to open the book and when I find a quote that inspires me, I’m going to start writing and see where that leads me.

It’s going to feel awkward AF but I Brene Brown keeps admonishing her listeners to lean into the awkward.

My intuition has nudged me in the right direction many, many times. Now I’m going to let it nudge me again. Even if that means I am about to venture into writing territory that feels awkward.