Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics

We do not require adherence to any particular dogma—even those that seem especially enlightened—to guide our way home to the Divine.

She has never asked much of you in return. Up until now, your gratitude has been enough. Your delight has been her reward. Up until now, she has not needed you as you have needed her. But that is shifting. You have grown up, and your Mother the Earth is in peril. She cannot hide her distress from you, and you would not want her to. You are mature e

the ocean of our longing. We can risk letting women matter to

Having a circle of support in this process is invaluable. When we feel held in the reality of our pain, we are gradually able to turn our hearts outward and embrace the pain of others.

sacred seeing?

the path of the mystic reconciles contradictory propositions (such as harrowing sorrow and radical amazement) and blesses us with an expanded capacity to sit with ambiguity, to treasure vulnerability, to celebrate paradox as the highest truth.

Women have a tendency to overapologize. Not all women, of course. But many of us have been conditioned to avoid taking up space in this world, expressing our opinions, asking for what we want. We are compelled to beg forgiveness for being and may use this compulsion as a kind of preemptive technique, accusing ourselves before we can be accused and

It is not necessary to pass through elaborate initiations and pay for expensive seminars to earn access to a place where we can meet Reality and say yes to it.

When I have some new accomplishment he celebrates me, and when I am disappointed he comforts me, and when I am sick he tends me. But he does not overdo the praising or the commiserating or the nursing. His care is grounded in dignity—both his own and mine.