Exploring how identity, power, and self-narratives evolve as powerful forces of transformation
Last month’s reading focused on creativity as a tool for shifting mindsets in order to grow your Abundant Imagination. This month builds by exploring how identity, power, and self-narratives evolve over time as powerful forces of transformation. It’s about moving away from scarcity and deficit frameworks to embrace what is and what you are becoming in spite of societal messaging and norms. A goal of mine this year is to explore storytelling more as a way to reshape our future from the current trajectory.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
This book was my 6th grader’s school book club choice. It has been a delightful to read aloud some of the chapters at night together. It’s about the waning magic of a ‘grandmother’ and the growing magical power of Luna as she gets closer to her 13th birthday. That’s paired with how a community creates rituals and stories to protect secrets. Sadly, I don’t know how it ended because the book club called it back before I got to finish.
Kelly Barnhill has also written an adult fantasy book. Last year I read When Women Were Dragons, set in the 1950s and girls and women spontaneously combust into dragons. It addresses the social oppression of women, especially the fear around their/our own self-sovereignty. I enjoyed it, and though it wasn’t my typical read or genre it was a fun way to get the reader seeing societal patterns of sexism through the perspective of the narrator who was a girl when the “Mass Dragoning” events happened.
ADHD is Awesome: A Guide to (Mostly) Thriving With ADHD by Kim Holderness and Penn Charles Holderness
Here’s the reverse. Someone recommended this book, and I picked this up from the library. Then the kiddo snagged it from me for a book project. One great thing about this book is it’s written by someone with ADHD and the people who don’t have ADHD but live and work with him. It’s got good nuggets for everyone and is organized much like how I imagine Penn’s brain works with little break out factoids and stories. It doesn’t sugar coat ADHD but it does offer a positive framing for even the more challenging aspects. It also has handy tips for the ADHDer and the people who love them. My only nag is it came across to me as more Hyperactive focused. I often found those parts didn’t resonate with my Inattentive type, which was less addressed or as obvious. Which, fair–it is titled ADHD not ADD. Just wanted to note that for you. I do recommend this book as a shared read in your house. It’s prompted some good insights and conversations with my kiddo who is an ADDer, as I likely am, too.
Hagitude: Reimagining the Second Half of Life by Sharon Blackie
Sharon’s Hagitude book is a delightful reworking of the menopaused woman - you can feel it in the title alone, can’t you?! I pulled this book out to highlight some passages in my first Dirt & Disobedience Substack newsletter post - Fragments of Voices and Not Enoughness. I ended up quoting her book If Women Rose Rooted, though, another one I highly recommend if you are interested in an eco-heroine’s journey. (I’m quite bored of the linear male-centric Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey.) What’s not to love about a book with the tag line, “Someday your witch will come.” (Spoiler alert: it’s you and you are powerful beyond what the world would have you know!)
Speaking of witches, this month, my kiddo and I both also listened to this delightful 13 episode BBC podcast - Witch (aired in 2023). It offered some fun and new historical perspectives on witch hunts across the UK, as well as the contemporary reconciliation for the murdered women who were charged with witchcraft paired with current practices of witchiness in modern times.
Last but not least, this month I launched on Substack, Dirt & Disobedience:
Fragments of Voices and Not Enoughness - my first post where I grapple with making my inner voices public, so I grab some goddess oracle cards and show up.
Leaving the Parking Lot: Shedding the Dreams We Were Told To Want - some Jungian dream analysis paired with a critique on car culture and fossil fuel dependency.
Nicey-Nice is Not Neutral: Unlearning Complicity - about the childhood scripts of ‘good girl’ and the role in oppressing self and others.
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