Do Not Lose Heart. We Were Made For These Times.

The Wise Words of Clarissa Pinkola Estés

I often talk to people scared by the state of our world, unsure of their place in it, and overwhelmed by the task of doing something about it.

A friend shared with me the words of poet Clarissa Pinkola Estés and I've found them comforting in times of despair.

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.

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, we were made for these times.

One of the most important steps you can take to help calm the storm is to not allow yourself to be taken in a flurry of overwrought emotion or despair, thereby accidentally contributing to the swale and the swirl.

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.

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.

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."

-jz

Source: Excerpts from Letters To A Young Activist During Troubled Times by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D

Photo Credit: Zastavki.com