Woman of the Woods

I was reading a post by Theodora Goss called “Going for Real,” a few weeks ago. It was a personal take on the desire for real-life experiences versus the enjoyment of video games. I don’t know how savvy it is to quote from a comment on someone else’s blog but this paragraph is too wonderful not to share:

“There is a realness to me in fairytales and myths that I don’t feel in the actual world, a world so saturated by gadgets and celebrity gossip and fetid reality shows and pop-culture references and the drive to bulldoze one’s way through life. So I endeavor to bring stories and magic into my life daily, to slow down and notice the small states of enchantment that thrive in the least expected places of the everyday. When I go to my 9-5 job (which I rather loathe, but it pays the bills), I invoke the myth of Persephone, and I become for a while (at least in my imagination) that Spring Maiden who was so cruelly snatched from her home by Hades. I descend into the Underworld (for oft-times that is what my office job feels like), but I also know, like Persephone, I will rise again and return to my beloved home, bringing Spring with me. It’s this mythic anticipation of renewal that informs my daily routines. It is a song, a spell. Life can be magic.” — Lynn, April 12, 2013

I love what Lynn wrote, and I agree — the actual world doesn’t feel very real sometimes. Various people’s actions or their values are easier to accept if you can explain that they are simply under some crazy spell. And to view work as a periodic trip to the Underworld that you get to rise up from, does make it easier to get through.

I have decided that I am Woman of the Woods, and that I take the form of a typical office worker to fulfill my work responsibilities, but my interior world is listening to birds in the forest. I wear something green every day so I don’t slip too far into my alter ego and forget my true identity.