You Were Made For This
By Clarissa Pinkola Estes
My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard
from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned
about the state of affairs in our world now. Ours is a time of almost
daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations
of what matters most to civilized, visionary people.
You are right in your assessments. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to
while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people,
the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet, I urge you, ask
you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these
difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the
fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been
learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this
exact plain of engagement.
I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a
seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never
been more able vessels in the waters than there are right now across the
world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal one another as never
before in the history of humankind.
Look out over the prow; there are
millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you. Even though your
veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the
long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That
long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold
its own, and to advance, regardless.
In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much
is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency,
too, to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your
reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind
without raising the sails.
We are needed, that is all we can know. And though
we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love
us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn't you say you
were a believer? Didn't you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater?
Didn't you ask for grace? Don't you remember that to be in grace means to
submit to the voice greater?
Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of
stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any
small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some
portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to
us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward
an enduring good.
What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of
acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not
take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a
small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or
hundredth gale.
One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a
stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold
in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares,
builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the
lantern of soul in shadowy times like these—to be fierce and to show mercy
toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.
Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing
to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the
strongest things you can do.
There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair
many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain
it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.
The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D
Author of the best seller Women Who Run with the Wolves
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