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	# 2017-02-15 - You Were Made For This by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

	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
	Women Who Run with the Wolves

	tags: article,spirit

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	spirit