[Dialogue] We were made for these times

[jallen.odyssey@mindspring.com]

Dear friends and colleagues,

The excerpt below has helped me shift my attention in a more productive and grace-filled direction. I hope you find it helpful...



Message to brighten tomorrow from  the author of Women Who Run with the
Wolves


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 right 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.


This comes with much love and a prayer that you remember who you came 
from,
and why you came to this beautiful, needful Earth.


Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D