My friends, do not lose heart

From writer/feminist/Native American elder and adoptee: 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.

↬

“The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you
have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is
a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot
bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a
sane life, that is a door.”

―
Clarissa Pinkola Estés,

Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype