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Rowan Mangan

Writer. Mom. Wild Inventurer.

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Gathering nuts

September 29, 2022

Dear one, Last night I happened to glance out of a window and caught a glimpse of a little chipmunk sitting alone on a stone wall in the garden. She honestly seemed to be taking a moment to herself to enjoy the lavish sunset that was visible between the trees. It’s a busy time for […]

Filed Under: Parenting inventures

The measure of our lives

September 19, 2022

Dear ones, In her Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Toni Morrison said this. We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Sometimes I’m so divorced from the meaning of my own swirling emotions that I […]

Filed Under: Parenting inventures

Multitasking identities

September 6, 2022

Dear ones, So many of my inventures are about the endless quest to get on top of things in my life. Or, if not on top of them, at least not pinned to the floor by their weight. Y’know? I picture people who are good at life like this: they are gardeners of all their […]

Filed Under: Parenting inventures

Blowing past stop signs 🛑

August 23, 2022

Dear friends, I have a few “Oops, I did it again” patterns that play out repeatedly in my life. One of them is dreaming big, overcommitting, and finding myself greedily trying to squeeze two or three lives into the space of this one lifetime I’ve been given. Luckily, I’m starting to learn to read my […]

Filed Under: Parenting inventures

Playing Life

August 11, 2022

Dear friends, When I was about 11, my mum woke me up one morning with a plan. We were going to catch a train up the center of the Australian continent, then sail to Indonesia and spend a few months island hopping. Nothing was going to stop us: not the fact that we didn’t have […]

Filed Under: Parenting inventures

Don’t bring a word processor to a spell-casting 🪄

August 2, 2022

Dear friends, My best and latest rejection for my novel landed in my inbox this morning. No matter how reconciled and chill I tell myself I am, a rejection always feels like being kicked in the chest by something large and well-trained in the art of kicking. I sat down with my beloveds and we […]

Filed Under: Parenting inventures

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We were talking to Ro’s father about songwriting a We were talking to Ro’s father about songwriting and the process of writing songs and playing music, and he said, “Just don’t forget that it’s called playing the guitar.” 🎸
Emphasis on playing.

Somewhere along the way, the “culture worm” gets in there and stops us from doing things for their own sake. We stop playing and start performing, even when there’s no one watching.

On this episode of Bewildered, we’re dissecting what it means to reclaim the play in whatever you do. Come play with us! ✨

You can listen to Bewildered episode 133: Playing Without Performing, access the show notes, and find links to resources on our website at the link in our bio—or on your favorite podcasting app. 🎧
Just a rooster, standing in front of a lesbian, as Just a rooster, standing in front of a lesbian, asking her to ignore gender stereotypes
Did you know that you don’t have to do everything Did you know that you don’t have to do everything by yourself?

For example, you can be the one who makes the thing, and someone in your community who enjoys photographing the thing can do that part. 📸

No matter how introverted we are, we just keep landing back in community because it’s never supposed to be self-sufficiency. It’s always supposed to be interdependence.

You can have a part yourself that makes the art, and you can have other parts that do other stuff, but you can also externalize those things to actual other people.

We can help each other. What a concept. 🤯

The culture’s monetization of everything often makes us forget that it doesn’t always have to be a transaction. It can just be a favor.

We saw this happen at our Pure.Wild.Self retreat in Costa Rica. There were twenty-five people there, and Liz Gilbert stopped by one day, and the whole thing turned into people rejoicing in each other’s genius.

Person after person connecting with someone whose joy would help them make their joy into something sustaining. They were trading passions, trading specialties. It was a little village of 25 people, just bursting with interdependence.

That’s what we’re talking about on this episode of Bewildered. Join us!

You can listen to Bewildered episode 132: Enriching Your Enclosure, access the show notes, and find links to resources on our website at the link in our bio—or on your favorite podcasting app. 🎧
We’re always trying to hack our own psyches, right We’re always trying to hack our own psyches, right?

We’re looking for ways to game the system…to reframe things from Sunday-scaries mode into exciting mode.

One hack we keep coming back to is: Money equals points. If you can get the little Pac-Man part of you engaged in money (nit-nit-nit-nit), suddenly you’re moving.

A friend of ours said it best. When Ro asked her what was pushing her to her desk every day to finish her book, she looked up and said: “Well, I’m really looking forward to getting paid.”

It was such a great cut-the-bullshit, cut-all-the-highfalutin-stuff moment.

One way of tricking yourself so that you can move toward the money thing and not get stopped by the switch into “I have to do a job now!” panic, is this: Just make something. Anything.🧶

To hear more about the hacks, tricks, and reframes for getting more of what you love into your life, join us for the full conversation!

You can listen to Bewildered episode 132: Enriching Your Enclosure, access the show notes, and find links to resources on our website at the link in our bio—or on your favorite podcasting app. 🎧
Happy Lughnasadh, festival of first harvest! It’s Happy Lughnasadh, festival of first harvest! It’s lovely to meet some of the potatoes and onions I’ve been talking to these past few months. I just love these midsummer vibes ☀️
We will not be taking questions at this time. #chi We will not be taking questions at this time. #chickens #chickenswholunch #chickensbigdayattheraces
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.
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