Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave & Sean O’Hagan

Epic, beautiful, heartbreaking, redeeming, enlightening, engaging.

An intimate conversation with journalist Sean O’Hagan that covers faith, art, music, freedom, grief, love, doubt, wonder, awe, creativity, the religious, the spiritual and radical intimacy with Nick Cave. It’s a wild ride.

“It’s really something else to stand on stage and sing a song that is just trembling quietly on the point of collapse, and to look into the faces of people and to see that they are inside the song with you. It was very, very moving; it felt like there was a kind of radical intimacy taking place.”

Cave lays it bare, but also does not give answers that others want or expect. He is vulnerable, honest, holds integrity to his story; to sometimes say I’m not sure, I don’t know. There is intelligence, instinct, beautifully articulated emotions and experiences, and yes, a radical intimacy throughout.

While all aspects of Cave’s life are discussed, it cycles and circles around the death of Cave’s son Arthur. How he and wife Susie grieved, slowly re-entered life through their creative storytelling and art making; how after tremendous grief and loss, joy found a home in the heart again.

“I think music can have a way of influencing the heart in a righteous way that enables us to do better, to be better. Especially when the songs get played live. Collectively, we can experience the music actually improving the condition of the listener. I see it all the time. I experience it myself well. It’s a very real thing.”

Loving Cave’s music is not essential to absorb the richness of the conversation. To hear the story is reward enough.

Big love,

Rachel x

Mindwandering by Moshe Bar

Mindwandering: how it can improve your mood and boost your creativity!

Neuroscientist, Moshe Bar delivers the latest in research on the mind and how and why it wanders. Bar shares his research and personal experience to enlighten the reader on our different states of mind and how and when to use them. It began in 2016 with his New York Times article “Think less, think better” which garnered a lot of interest on the topic of creative incubation.

The information is vast and interesting but a condensed overview includes; how to learn from imagined experiences, how to have the right state of mind for the right circumstance, the importance of immersion and incorporating meditation into our lives, and how to wander broadly, far and fast with ease.

“The most creative and uplifting mindandering requires that we will have no demanding task to accomplish, coupled with a positive mood.”

How much of our lives is overlooked because our mind is cluttered? Bar imparts great insight into the working of our mind and how to better direct our thinking to elevate mood and invite in creativity.

I’m a devoted daydreamer and find a lot of benefit in my own creative incubation phases from allowing long sessions of mindwandering. Bar’s work has given this inclination of mine far more structure and deeper understanding to enhance the experience. It disambiguates the process of mindwandering and shows us how to take that mental chatter and make it meaningful.

“Mindwandering, with all the benefits that if confers, is not enough for us; we need an external world, and we need it to be meaningful.”

An exceptional read if you are wanting to understand the mind and how to harness your creativity and curiosity!

Big love,

Rachel x

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

If you believe the power of words can create worlds; new worlds that see us living past this era of destruction and decline, then here is a story to warm your heart. Here is the story of a friendship between monk and robot. When their paths cross, a quest begins that sees them shape a new friendship, new perspectives on life, and analyse the meaning of purpose - whether human or robot - and how to shape their days based on that belief.

Chambers beautifully foretells a future that is shaped after their world pulls back from the brink of disaster to make the necessary changes for survival. And while this sees humans and robots peacefully choose to live apart, Dex and Mooscap do find each other and begin a new era of understanding.

It’s funny and deeply thoughtful.

Enjoy the magic!

Big love,

Rachel x

What Kind of Woman, Poems by Kate Baer

What kind of woman, what kind of mother, lover, friend? Baer’s first poetry collection is a whirlwind ride through many of our emotional states, as we move through life’s many experiences as a woman. Voiced with honesty and vulnerability on the beauty and hardships of being a woman alive and kickin’ today, it is an incredibly moving collection.

Some of the prose elicited my own memories and emotions, and I could easily melt into the recall of my own experiences. Other moments were foreign to me, but it wasn’t hard to connect to Baer’s gentle call for justice and change.

This from Some Nights

Some nights she walks out to the

driveway where the lilacs bloom and

lies down on the warm pavement even

though the neighbours will see and wonder

what kind of woman does such things.

These poems are written in reverence to the femme, to our hungers, our desires, our loves. An ode to the complexities of our times; the challenges, the wins, the glory of making sense out of it all. To spend time with these poems and be lost in Baer’s magic, will bring you back to yourself. It fuels our own internal musings on the power and beauty of being a woman.

From To Take Back a Life

This is not a dress

rehearsal before a better kind of life.

Pick up your heavy burdens and leave

them at the gate. I will hold the door for

you.

Enjoy the magic!

Big love,

Rachel x

The Right to Write by Julia Cameron

Writing is sensual Julia Cameron evokes, and throughout this book she will show you all the ways. Cameron has over 30 years experience as a novelist, playwright and songwriter. You may best know her for the deeply intuitive and heartening book The Artist’s Way. The book I personally came to see as my jumping point into my quest for a deeper intuitive experience of life.

The Right to Write is described as an invitation and initiation into the writing life. An invitation that delivers an unfaltering belief in everyone’s power of creativity. Cameron is unfazed by the predominant belief that writers are only those with published works. We’re all writers, all storytellers, all creators.

Cameron covers all the stereotypes and falsehoods of how the writer’s life should be executed. She weaves the threads of words that bring purpose, courage and value to our call to write. There is a deep humanity that permeates the practicalities she shares. It’s not a ‘how to’ book, it’s a ‘why you should’ exploration. Beautifully encouraging. Resolute, reassuring, unfaltering in its claim that we all have the right to write.

Big love,

Rachel x

Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Contacting the power of the wild woman. Absolutely!

First published in 1992, it is the classic body of work on the inner life of women. I only read it for the first time two years ago, and it took me a year to complete.

It’s a deep dive into the female psyche and as such I had to read, explore, write and then integrate each archetype I felt drawn to work with. It plunged me deep into the subconscious where much of what I was exploring was surfacing and healing in my dream state.

It is a book heaving with profound wisdom, insight and humour. Lovingly delivered, Estés encourages us towards our own wild woman status. Grab a journal, a quiet spot to meditate and an explorer’s heart, it will be a wild ride.

Big love,

Rachel

The Soul of a Woman by Isabel Allende

“When I say I was a feminist in kindergarten, even before the concept was known in my family, I am not exaggerating.” Allende’s opening line to her collection of stories, thoughts and ideals on feminism. From this first sentence I knew I was in for a wild ride; one that champions tenacity, vulnerability, humour and deep truths on the feminine heart space.

For I had the exact same experience at the age of four. My first (and most powerful) memory, is of myself being offended when a kindergarten teacher suggested I play with the kitchen and oven set. With hands on my hips, and a quick rebuttal of ‘as if’ I ceremoniously stormed outside to play with the boys on the gym equipment.

Ever since I have been drawn to reading stories of strong, unconventional female characters; both real and imagined. Allende shares her life experiences and opinions on feminism from the vantage point of seven decades of living, lived across different cultures. She offers a lucid and astute definition on ‘what is feminism?’

“Feminism is not what we have between our legs but what we have between our ears. It’s a philosophical posture and an uprising against male authority. It’s way of understanding human relationships and a way to see the world. It’s a commitment to justice and a struggle for the emancipation of women, the LGBTQIA+ community, anyone oppressed by the system, including some men, and all others who want to join. Welcome!”

This book is another powerful piece of feminist writing that I highly recommend to all.

Big love,

Rachel x

The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West

This fierce feminist offering is crucial reading for women and men who care to change our culture’s steadfast grip on inequality. West’s sharp wit and fierce intelligence critiques western culture post #metoo, and declares “You think this is witch hunt? Fine, you’ve got one.”

And she doesn’t hold back. Written through the lens of economics, politics, family, language, culture, the arts and more. West empowers women and directly challenges men to participate in dismantling the misogyny. This is not a book asking women to solely lay the work at their own feet. She very loudly declares that men created the patriarchy and it’s men who need to fix this mess.

“Sexism is a male invention. So far, men have treated #MeToo like a bumbling dad in a detergent commercial: well intentioned but floundering, as though they are not the experts. You are the experts.”

With her personal plea of “Do you ever stick up for me?” to the men in her life, she is cutting straight to the heart of what woman need from men to change these patriarchal structures.

She asks of men:

• How about men strike for International Women’s Day?

• How about men take on the economic and social burdens of calling out toxic patterns of gendered socialisation?

• How about anyone but the oppressed lifts a finger to change anything at all?

I would add: Do you ask your employers to be transparent about salary to make sure your female counterparts are paid the same? Do you call out social media platforms that don’t shut down sexist accounts?

Despite the heavy subject matter of excavating #MeToo’s reason for being, this book is empowering. I concur with West, If misogynist’s see this as a witch hunt; fine, you’ve got one.

Big love,

Rachel x

The Invitation by Oriah

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

Enough said, right!? Powerful energy of transformation through the words of Oriah. One of the most life altering books to enter my heart.

This poem goes on in fierce callings to the heart and soul, and her book continues to expand upon the potent call of the invitation.

Essential reading.

Big love,

Rachel x

The Universal Heart by Stephanie Dowrick

This practical and powerful guide has been an emotional bible to me for the past 20 years. Stephanie Dowrick’s level of compassion and insight into the human experience, rendered through her loving prose, delivers a depth of wisdom I have rarely encountered.

Love is the currency that transcends all others, and any new discovery about love will improve all of our connections. The storytelling, and mystic wisdom delivered throughout the book triggers transformations and revelations that soothe, heal and open us to greater understandings.

This book, more than any other, is the one I recommend to anyone feeling lost, feeling loss, feeling confused and overwhelmed. The love contained in these pages has sustained me through many trauma’s and challenges. The advice given has been an ongoing catalyst for personal growth and healing.

This is the book to have at hand in a crisis. And don’t be precious about its use. My copy has hundreds of highlights, comments in the margins and underlined notes that mark my emotional journey over the years.

Love generously,

Big love,

Rachel x

Little Weirds by Jenny Slate

This book is a journey to the heart of living a multidimensional life where you may just be a fruit, a colour, an animal or any other little weird. Woven through all this eccentricity (which I devoured in deep pleasure) is the beating heart of any woman’s question around what is it to love ourselves as we are? Who decides what is normal and acceptable behaviour for a woman? And how do we navigate the misogyny and the patriarchal ideals and structures that hold us back with all their force?

From the book:

I’m a woman in dessert tones at the start of a bleating little day. Mouth full of clover. Oh, holy shit, I am a big fat fruit on a tree, dangling in the air just so, living in a state of fullness and exhilaration. I am connected to eternity and I am part of everything and although I am with all of it, I am still different from anything and everything.

Little Weirds is a deep reach into the inner life of one funny, witty, intelligent, vulnerable woman. There is no way it can’t seep into our own hearts to allow our own little weirds to emerge also.

Jenny’s closing words:

I look up to you because I love the heavenly bodies of the universe, and the way I see it, your heart is a planet.

Your heart is factually a part of the universe, which is a miracle of endless force and boundless beauty.

There is literally no way that you are not part of that.

Despair can force you to turn your eyes away from this fact, but it is the real truth and it will be waiting to be with you when you are free enough to turn back to it.

Your heart is a planet. I can see that you are from the sky.

The Book of Moods by Lauren Martin

I have been following Lauren’s powerful instagram account @wordsofwomen for years and have always found so much depth and wisdom in her posts. So seeing she had written a book on her own journey through her circumstances and the emotions that followed caught my attention.

There is no doubt that Lauren has poured out the worst of demons, for all of us to see. She is vulnerable and raw about her reactions and ensuing emotions to everything—work, family, friends, love—and is clearly showing her desperate need for peace, stability, understanding and self-acceptance. What we all journey through, right?

I would place this book as the perfect read for women in their 20’s to early 30’s as any of us older than this has most likely already worked most of this out for ourselves, or we are on a solid path of understanding.

The book is injected with intriguing stories of famous women and their struggles to help highlight a message Lauren is moving through. She also has some strong quotes—words of women at their best— sprinkled throughout the book that resonated deeply.

At its core, Lauren’s vulnerability is the strength that holds this book as a valuable resource to young women everywhere. Cultivating a trusting heart in our chaotic world is shaped by offerings like The Book of Moods.

Happy reading,

Rachel x

Rootbound: Rewilding a Life by Alice Vincent

Rootbound is a delight to read and I was happily absorbed in Alice’s tale. A beautiful journey through a tumultuous time in Alice’s life and how her love of plants and exploring her city’s natural spaces was the path to healing heartbreak.

The book mixes memoir, history and adventure to examine how bringing nature into our lives can help us find a little magic and calm in a world that is so unsettling.

A great inspiration if you are someone who wishes to teach yourself how to garden! Alice also has a great insta account worth checking out! @noughticulture

Happy reading! Have you read this too? Let me know your thoughts!

Rachel x

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Every page of this book elicits great value to your creative soul!

So, are you looking for the kick up the butt you need to be be working on your creative projects? Are you running away from your genius because of the myriad of excuses your ego is spitting out? Are you looking for a break through to win those internal battles?

Any excuse your ego can dish up to stop you creating, can be countered by the wisdom in The War of Art . Here is one of favourite passages in the book…'Remember, Resistance wants us to cede sovereignty to others. It wants us to stake our self-worth, our identity, our reason-for-being, on the response of others to our work. Resistance knows we can’t take this. No one can.’

Stellar read! Have you also read it? Let me know your thoughts.

Rachel x

Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

This book has been shortlisted for 2020 Booker Prize for astoundingly good reason. Doshi writes a tale that has love, that has hatred and despite family trauma, there is the bond of a family as it attempts to break free of the stories that shaped them all.

Burnt Sugar navigates a mother & daughter relationship that has been harrowing and turbulent. Shaped by the mother’s madness and violence over the years, the daughter must now also navigate her mother’s deteriorating memory. How can she use her anger towards her mother against her if she remembers none of her wrong doings? How does she care for her, while also processing the intensity of emotion around their shared traumas.

A powerful story of how we are shaped by the presence and/or absence of our parents. How the paths that we are dragged along as children mould our complicated adult lives. A story on how we love and create under the weight of these traumas.

Burnt Sugar is exquisitely written. I found myself stopping several times to absorb the beauty of the sentence I had just consumed. I love being surprised and engrossed by a new combination of words on a page, that halts my reading and demands my attention. This is the power of storytelling!

Doshi delivers characters that are complicated, bewildering but also gives the necessary space to empathise with their selfish and perhaps misguided choices. At the heart of each character is the search for freedom and self-expression in a world that rarely allows women the grace to do so.

Stellar read! Have you also read it? Let me know your thoughts.

Rachel x

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

My number 1 recommendation for 2020!

This is one of the most powerful, soulful and liberating reads to ever cross my reading path. Glennon’s ferocious authenticity and tender love for women on the path of self sovereignty is one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself!

One of my favourite quotes from the book…”I burned the memo that defined selflessness as the pinnacle of womanhood, but first I forgave myself for believing that lie for so long.”

Every chapter contains advice, stories and insight that packs a punch in all the right ways. What do we need to wake up to about how we’ve held ourselves back? Who are we now, once we’ve decided our society and its institutions no longer define who we are?

Stop pleasing, start living! Thanks Glennon, I think I will!

Have you read Untamed? Let me know how it moved in you! This one is powerful!