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