Why Untamed is the BEST Mother's Day Read

Moments before we were all locked down for the spring of 2020, Glennon Doyle’s new book Untamed hit the shelves and her book tour interviews started hitting the interwebs.

I’m not embarrassed to tell you I had no idea who she was, although I probably should have. In the early two-thousand-teens, Glennon Doyle was becoming a rising star author on the Christian women’s speaking circuit. And those were the years when I was taking a cold-turkey break from Christian culture (a break that became permanent after 2016, but that’s another story).

So I missed the Glennon Doyle drama in 2016-18 and her excommunication from the Christian world as she was living the stories that became Untamed. In fact, I hadn’t heard or read even one little thing about the woman until I watched an interview she did on MarieTV to promote the book.

I prefer coming to controversial books that way.

New.

Fresh.

With a chance at making up my own mind.

I knew it would be an uncomfortable read for me because I was still coming out of a lot of confusion and programming back then (I still am). But when I heard Glennon read the last page of the book, I stopped everything, bought the audiobook, started listening immediately, and devoured it.

Here’s what she read ⤵

“I will not stay, not ever again — in a room or conversation or relatioinship or institution that requires me to abandon myself.

When my body tells me the truth, I’ll believe it.
I trust myself now, so I will no longer suffer voluntarily or silently or for long.

I’ll look at those women to my left and right who must stay, because it’s that time for them, because they have to know what love and God and freedom are not before they can know what love and God and freedom are. Because they want to know. Because they are warriors. I’ll send them every bit of my strength and solidarity to help them through this part.

And then I’ll pick up my mat and slowly, deliberately, lightly walk out.

Because I have just remembered that the sun is shining, the breeze is cool, and these doors, they’re not even locked.

~ Glennon Doyle, Untamed

Since then, I’ve read and listened to the book a few times over, and it’s unlocked something inside of me every single time. The first time I read it, I was buzzing with courage and did three things I’d been trying to do for years: left my salary job, started my own consulting business, and published my first book — three things that changed my life in a very good way. The second time I read it, I was buzzing with creativity and did something I’d been wanting to do for months: created, offered, and taught two new women’s group courses back-to-back.

Then, a few weeks ago, I started reading Untamed again and found myself buzzing with so many big, wild dreams that I almost jumped out of my skin. I felt like something great was about to happen.

Except I stopped halfway through.

I did nothing. And I’ve been stuck ever since. Which is why I’ll be finishing Untamed this weekend. And why I think it’s the PERFECT read for Mother’s Day weekend.

Starting today.

Right now.

(Seriously, you could grab the audiobook right this very minute & pop it in your earbuds.)

But before I launch into the part about Mother’s Day, I want to acknowledge the large group of women for whom this Hallmark holiday brings a unique flavor of pain. If that’s you, I want you to know you’re seen and loved. You matter. This part can absolutely be for you too, but only if you want it to be. There’s also another set of books I recommend reading this month — the books I wrote about last May in “Books That Heal”. I’ve been re-reading and finishing the books in that post ever since, and I vouch for them more than ever before.

According to American history gurus, Mother’s Day has been celebrated since ancient times but was formalized in the early 1920s by Anna Jarvis, who then became so disgusted by the holiday’s commercialization that by 1920, she was petitioning the government to cancel the holiday altogether.

These days, it’s still commercialized plenty, but I LOVE celebrating Mother’s Day weekend for one very important reason — I miss my mom who’s been gone now for 5+ years, and I love setting aside time to think about her, to write her a long letter, to celebrate her, and to remember all the funny things I can remember about her.

I also love celebrating Mother’s Day because of my family’s Mother’s Day hiking tradition — a little something I came up with a few years ago to reward myself for all the motherly things I do throughout the year. So yes, I’ll be hiking this weekend. But I’ll also be reading Untamed.

Because I don’t want to be tame.

Because I want to be alive.

Because I can’t wait to see what will happen this time.

Because if there’s any “best” time to remind ourselves who we were truly meant to be as women, as the mothering kind of folks, as humans who nurture the people we love, it’s this weekend — Mother’s Day.

So, whether you’re a mother yourself or not, I hope you have more than a few celebration plans this weekend. I hope those plans involve celebrating a woman you love — and celebrating yourself, too.

I hope you don’t skip Mother’s Day.

If your Mother’s Day plans involve reading a book or two that will light your soul on fire and set you free in new ways, now you know one book that just might do that — Untamed.

If you want someone to talk to about it, I’m here.

Always.