Rewilding Motherhood
Your Path to an Empowered Feminine Spirituality
About
Women are often told by their communities that being a mother will complete or define them. But many mothers find themselves depleted and spiritually stagnant amid the everyday demands of being a mom. They long to experience a rich inner life but feel there is rarely enough time, energy, or stillness to connect with God in a meaningful way.
This book takes the concept of rewilding and applies it to motherhood. Just as an environmentalist seeks to rewild land by returning it to its natural state, Shannon Evans invites women to rewild motherhood by reclaiming its essence through an expansive feminine spirituality.
Drawn from the contemplative Catholic tradition and Evans's own parenting experience, Rewilding Motherhood helps women deepen their connection to God through practices inherent to the life they're living now. Topics include work-life balance, identity, solitude, patience, household work, and mission for the common good. Throughout, Evans encourages women to see motherhood as an opportunity to discover a vibrant feminine spirituality and a deeper knowledge of God and self.
Contents
Introduction
Part 1: Growing Inward
1. Forging Identity: Self-Actualization beyond the Roles We Serve
2. Maintaining Boundaries: Generosity toward Self and Others
3. Holding Tension: The Sacred Work of Integration
4. Reclaiming Solitude: Transforming Loneliness into an
Inner Well
5. Following Anger: The Redemptive Power of Outrage
6. Staying Curious: Fearless Nurture of Our Spiritual Selves
7. Cultivating Patience: Holy Resistance in an Age of Rush
8. Heeding Intuition: Divine Movement through Feminine Wisdom
Part 2: Flowing Outward
9. Embodying Hospitality: Fertility That Embraces the Whole World
10. Becoming Gentle: Tenderness in Exchange for Criticism
11. Releasing Control: Permission to Stop Playing God
12. Valuing Work: Spiritual Teachings of Household Labor
13. Living Incarnation: Finding God in Our Bodies, Home, and Earth
14. Reimagining God: Making Space for a Divine Motherhood
Benediction
Endorsements
"If you are a mother who longs to feel at home in motherhood--or a seeker who wrestles with finding a home in faith--Shannon K. Evans offers a new way to encounter the divine within the ordinary. Rewilding Motherhood offers balm for mind, body, and soul, giving you permission to nourish your spiritual life as you care for your children. Gentle and strong, curious and encouraging, Shannon is a wise guide through the wild terrain of parenting's joys and struggles. Her words invite you to dig deeper, dream bigger, and search wider for the truths you have been seeking about God, your own life, and this sacred calling."
Laura Kelly Fanucci, author of Everyday Sacrament: The Messy Grace of Parenting
"Can we rewild motherhood? In this book, Evans takes us on a journey to explore the fullness of our identities as women. This book surprised me, taught me, and held me, reminding me not only of the gift of being a mother but also the gift of coming home to myself in every way possible. I am so grateful I joined her on the journey."
Kaitlin B. Curtice, author of Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God
"This soulful book is a strong, gentle embrace, welcoming us into an expansive exploration of the sacred spaces of motherhood. These reflections invite us to consider both our inner worlds and our larger communities, empowering all who possess a mothering spirit to have the unencumbered self-compassion to show up in our own hearts, minds, bodies, and souls, just as we show up for others. This book feels right on time, giving us permission to wonder and wander, finding God--and ourselves--in the magical and mysterious moments of motherhood and in the mundane ones too."
Kayla Craig, author of To Light Their Way: A Collection of Prayers and Liturgies for Parents; cofounder of Upside Down Podcast
"In a culture that has long minimized the full humanity of women, Evans invites us to a more expansive view of motherhood, and ultimately femininity. Rewilding Motherhood is both a fierce encouragement and a deep exhale. I'm grateful for this book."
Aundi Kolber, therapist; author of Try Softer and The Try Softer Guided Journey
"Shannon's book is a witty, clear, and holy invitation to rewild historical views of motherhood. Her words poignantly reimagine a God who is both divine and motherly. It is a must-read for those who desire a spiritual awakening in their calling of Christian motherhood."
Christy Bauman, author of Theology of the Womb
"Shannon K. Evans takes us through the beauties, joys, depths, and pains of womanhood in this gorgeous and deeply personal reflection. Rewilding Motherhood is an invitation to take an inward journey into ourselves as women and mothers. Borrowing words out of her book, this is 'a permission slip that doubles as a ticket to a more awakened spiritual life.' With thoughtful, beautiful, and poetic prose, Evans points us toward a wilder, more liberative God, which in turn frees us to explore the divine feminine within us and the sacred mystery within our children."
Kat Armas, host of The Protagonistas podcast; author of Abuelita Faith
"Shannon K. Evans's inclusive, communal perspective on motherhood is an invitation to shuck off cultural constraints and explore the women we've been all along. Weaving the sacred with the ordinary, Evans is our sister-guide for this journey of discovery. We are free to reconsider. Free to be mad. Free to embrace. Free to pray. Free to love from a place of wholeness. Rewilding Motherhood is the anthem we've long needed; this is a must-read for all who mother."
Shannan Martin, author of The Ministry of Ordinary Places and Falling Free
"Rewilding Motherhood is the permission to explore what motherhood means outside of the traditional beliefs many of us believed were set in stone."
Tiffany Bluhm, author of Prey Tell: Why We Silence Women Who Tell the Truth and How Everyone Can Speak Up
"Shannon K. Evans's prose leaves me breathless, like I'm standing above a rocky beach being buffeted by a storming ocean, soaking in the raw majesty and power. Evans shows her reader the cracks in our present reality, places where the Spirit breaks through. If you're feeling disconnected or disheartened by the waves of parenthood beating against the rocks of your soul, this book is for you."
Amanda Martinez Beck, author of Lovely: How I Learned to Embrace the Body God Gave Me
The Author
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Jean Ubben Shannon K. Evans
Shannon K. Evans, a writer in the contemplative Catholic tradition, is the author of Rewilding Motherhood: Your Path to an Empowered Feminine Spirituality and Embracing Weakness. She is an editor for National Catholic Reporter, a writer...
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