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       # 2017-02-15 - You Were Made For This by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
       
 (IMG) Rainbow warrior
       
       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
 (HTM) Women Who Run with the Wolves
       
       tags: article,spirit
       
       # Tags
       
 (DIR) article
 (DIR) spirit