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Rowan Mangan

Writer. Mom. Wild Inventurer.

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Welcome to Looking for America!

This is where I write about x, y, z and why I do this thing in the first place. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, brute argumentum quaerendum nam ei. Est iudicabit abhorreant consectetuer ei, dicant aliquid mea in, vim et volutpat consetetur. Dolore antiopam ea ius. Qualisque percipitur delicatissimi vel ne. No sed oratio pidis. Verterem democritum mea et, vidit doming ne nam. Quodsi atomorum nam at, ei qui liber deleniti, ea vel quod euripidis. Ut rebum suscipit nam. Pertinax assentior argumentum cu vis, vel voluptua epicurei facilisis et, ex bonorum phaedrum moderatius vix. Timeam similique delicatissimi mel at, mea altera delectus adolescens id.

Morning Self and the Storyteller

May 12, 2022

I edge into the beginning of my days very carefully, like someone in a movie trying to demonstrate calm in a hostage situation. Look, I’m putting my gun down here. Look, you can see my hands. I’m moving slowly. I’m talking softly. See? Eeeeverything’s okay, buddy. We’re all friends here. Because I’m anxious and an […]

Filed Under: Parenting inventures

On Looking Weird in Public

April 23, 2022

Last week, my family faced a scary choice point. We had to decide whether we wanted to be more public about how we live. It was a really vulnerable feeling. As we sat in our living room, talking about whether or not we wanted to do this, I suddenly realized that I’d been luxuriating in […]

Filed Under: Parenting inventures

Waiting for the spell to break: On Spring and beginnings

March 31, 2022

There’s something I’ve noticed about the way things begin—at least, for me. The new vista opens up ahead, bright and shiny and new, but just before I can step into it, the whole scene freezes. It’s as though someone has pressed “pause” on the TV. And I have to do that thing I really hate […]

Filed Under: Parenting inventures

Blog also located at Substack!

March 31, 2022

Rowan with newborn baby and the words "Wild Inventures" overlaid

Have you discovered Substack yet? I’m obsessed with it and now primarily blog over there (though you can always find my free writing here too!) Here’s the Wild Inventures blog/newsletter/community at Substack. I hope you’ll come over and join me there.

Filed Under: Parenting inventures

How to talk to Ro and Marty on Bewildered

December 2, 2021

Hi folks! We have a new kind of Bewildered episode, called “The BeWild Files,” which will feature listeners’ voices and our responses. YAY! Please find instructions below for sending a voice message to the Bewildered podcast. We love hearing from you, and while not every submission can make it onto the BeWild File episodes, we […]

Filed Under: Work inventures Tagged With: bewildered podcast

Inventures in Seeing

October 4, 2021

This piece is a longer version of a memory that I referred to in a recent Wild Inventures column in Martha Beck’s newsletter. It’s apropos of nothing, and in some ways, relevant to everything I think of when I talk about wild inventures. – Ro On a crowded street in rural India, an old man […]

Filed Under: Parenting inventures Tagged With: adventures, ashram, India, travel, wildparenting

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Some recent summer moments 🥰 Some recent summer moments 🥰
When opportunity arises, the culture tells us to m When opportunity arises, the culture tells us to make a pros and cons list. Count up the columns and follow whichever one has more items. It’s all about return on investment: minimize the effort, maximize the reward.

That’s the rational way of navigating, right?

But here’s the thing: You can’t actually know your return on investment ahead of time. It’s always only a projected ROI. And we are not living life in an environment where that’s easy to project, whether we’re talking financially, emotionally, or experientially.

How the f*ck are we supposed to know how to do any of that? 😅

We don’t think a pros and cons list is the answer. On this episode of Bewildered, we talk about what we think works better, and why it might feel a bit counterintuitive at first. Join us!

You can listen to Bewildered episode 130: Following Your Inner Pull, access the show notes, and find links to resources on our website at the link in our bio—or on your favorite podcasting app. 🎧
Nothing like hanging out with my favorite people i Nothing like hanging out with my favorite people in #WilderCommunity with Bilbo Baggins’s chin on my leg. Is this what absolute contentment feels like? 🐾 🌀
These so so precious summer days These so so precious summer days
A summer adventure with my girl A summer adventure with my girl
Do you want to be right, or do you want to make th Do you want to be right, or do you want to make things better?

That’s the question we keep coming back to in this week’s episode of Bewildered.

We’re going with making things better, even knowing we’ll mess it up repeatedly…in the middle of the night in our pajamas and overcoats. (Listen to the episode. You’ll understand.)

What we’ve learned from our friends in Africa is that the word for what we’re all trying to do isn’t conservation. It’s restoration.

And that starts from the inside out, seeking first the conservation of your own joy, and letting that energy be the thing you bring to a world that so desperately needs it. ❤️‍🩹🌍

You can listen to Bewildered episode 128: The Good Faith Footprint, access the show notes, and find links to resources on our website at the link in our bio—or on your favorite podcasting app. 🎧
Notes from an island Notes from an island
Just when you thought bestselling author, spiritua Just when you thought bestselling author, spiritual teacher and renowned thought leader @themarthabeck couldn’t get any cuter… along comes this gem! #funny #podcast #bewilderedpodcast #awww
Making dinner with food we grew. Best feeling. Making dinner with food we grew. Best feeling.
The Tale of the Brave Little Guy. 🫜These garden be The Tale of the Brave Little Guy. 🫜These garden beds, trellis etc are up to 40% off UNTIL SUNDAY MAY 10! Use code ROWANMANGANMD5 for another 5% off! ♥️♥️ #ad #vegogarden
The one person who never has to worry about how yo The one person who never has to worry about how you look 🤔#bewilderedpodcast
A part of you knows that the way to connect is to A part of you knows 
that the way to connect
is to live where too hard
and too soft intersect

I don’t know if you know, but
I know that you sense it—
The wince in the instinct
To rub up against it

cuz why have a heart 
if you won’t let it break?
It’s not a mistake
It’s the risk that you take
It’s the choice that you make
It’s your chance to awaken

- Rowan Mangan, "Intersect"
If you want to harden your seedlings like an Aussi If you want to harden your seedlings like an Aussie, consider getting some of my gorgeous Vego Garden gear. They’re having a Mother’s Day sale right now with up to 40% off! Use my code for another 5% off: ROWANMANGANMD5. Using this code and/or the links in my bio subsidizes my gardening problem and I’m SO grateful! 🙌🌸🌺 #ad
The best approach to growing our own food is to av The best approach to growing our own food is to avoid modern capitalistic methods and instead, to do as our ancestors did. 
1. take the seeds from your chest freezer
2. place them beneath an expensive grow light
3. buzz them with an electric toothbrush until they've self-pollinated. 
👉 "The End of the Hustle" is such a fun #BewilderedPod episode. Hope you listen and enjoy 🫶
When you’re burned out, you don’t have any energy When you’re burned out, you don’t have any energy to give to anything. But what if you do have energy, it’s just that you want to keep it to direct at the things that you truly want to do?

On this episode of Bewildered, we’re imagining another way of living and being that doesn’t involve conforming to hustle culture. 🚫💼

We’re talking about finding power in the things that we can do, not diluting our power to give to The Man, and taking power back and out of abstraction, out of the spreadsheet life where our labor is turned into abstraction upon abstraction.

So many of us don’t really know what we’re getting paid for, except maybe to sit at a desk being miserable. But hustle culture teaches us to worship that painful running, right up until we get flipped off the back of the treadmill. 🏃🏽‍♀️

We feel a deep, internal revolt against that kind of life. We don’t want the fetishized hustle. We don’t want the void at the end. We “don’t wanna.”

If some part of you is saying “I don’t wanna” too, this conversation is for you. Tune in and let’s figure out how to break free from hustle culture and find something that speaks to our wild human souls. 🌱🔥

You can listen to Bewildered episode 125: The End of the Hustle, access the show notes, and find links to resources on our website at the link in our bio—or on your favorite podcasting app. 🎧
Word. (Shamelessly stolen from @usakilts) Word.

(Shamelessly stolen from @usakilts)

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