Do
Not Lose Heart
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
- 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 crafts 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. We have been in training for a dark time such
as this. 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 perseverating 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?...
Understand the paradox: If you study the physics of a waterspout,
you will see that the outer vortex whirls far more quickly than the
inner one. To calm the storm means to quiet the outer layer, to
cause it to swirl much less, to more evenly match the velocity of
the inner core ~~ till whatever has been lifted into such a vicious
funnel falls back to Earth, lays down, is peaceable again. 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 desperation thereby accidentally contributing to the swale and
the swirl.
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. 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 prayer that you remember who you came from, and
why you came to this beautiful, needful Earth, by Clarissa Pinkola
Estes, Ph.D ©2003 C.P. Estes,
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