You have to be a wild woman to even think about going on the CBS show “Survivor”.  Susie Smith, a 47 year old hairdresser from Charles City, Iowa, came up one vote short of forcing a tie at the Survivor Gabon finale.

Susie played a low key game, and many underestimated her along the way. She was perceived as weak, as riding coat-tails, and of not being strategic.  In reality, Susie made some of the key moves of the season.  When fate, in the form of a tribe switch up, put her in the role of swing voter, she saw that she was far down the food chain in the main alliance from her original tribe. She could save one of those original tribe members, or cast her lot with a different group. She chose the latter, and it paid off.

Susie also won two individual immunities – the first and the last.  She saved herself at times when she was most vulnerable.

Like any of us, Susie has her quirks, and at times, she couldn’t seem to keep her mouth shut. But she is a genuinely kind person, and seemed able to separate playing the game from hurting people on purpose – a mistake others (Corinne, for example, with her heartless comment about Sugar’s recently deceased father) make all too often.

I didn’t respect Susie’s game, as it was shown to us via the editing, but I do respect that she kept her eyes open, took chances, won two crucial immunities, and did a respectable job in front of the jury.  Susie won second place, and $100,000.  She proves that you can be true to yourself and succeed in  navigating very treacherous social waters. Well done, Susie!

Much has been written about the Battle of Culloden ~ the Jacobite Uprising against government troops and the last battle to take place in Great Britain (the battle actually took place in 1746 but is known as the ‘45). Many of the tales talk of men – Bonnie Prince Charlie, warriors and troops… but there are tales to be told of the women of the ‘45 too.

One such woman is Isabel Haldane, wife of Charles Stewart of Ardsheal. Like many Scotswomen of the time, Isabel Haldane was a committed Jacobite and supported Bonnie Prince Charlie when he raised his standard at Glenfinnan. When Isabel realised that her husband was reluctant to lead the Stewarts of Appin to the battlefield for fear of the consequences, she took off her apron and handed it to him.

“Charles, if you are not willing to be commander of the Appin men, stay at home and take care of the house, and I will go and command them myself.”

In 1992, Women Who Run With the Wolves appeared in bookstores, and women found a portal into the world of the wild feminine nature. Our guide into those realms was Clarissa Pinkola Estes. Through stories, she held the lamp of knowledge out to illuminate pieces of our souls, to put names to things we had always known but could not articulate.

We embraced our wild natures. We knew the voice of Vasalisa. We realized that the ducks we had been living with were not our real kin and we sought out the swans where we belonged. She taught us about dancing in the red shoes, about rage and forgiveness, about taking joy in our bodies and our sexuality.

Her book was the inspiration for Crystals to create the Wild Wolf Women of the Web in December 1995. While we have since diverged into our own realm of seeing and being, we still take heart when we return as individuals to reading Estes words. We still welcome sisters who had been wandering in the soul desert, until they got their hands upon Estes’ book.

When we read words like these below, we know that Estes “gets us” and is one of us.

‘If you have never been called a defiant, incorrigible, impossible woman… have faith… there is yet time.” from Women Who Run with the Wolves

Estes Blog at National Catholic Reporter