We Were Made for These Times by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Do not lose heart.

We were made for these times.
I have heard from so many recently—people who are deeply and properly devoted—who are concerned about the state of our world.

Ours is a time of daily astonishments, of righteous rage at the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people. You are right in your assessments: the luster and hubris of those who aspire to power while endorsing heinous acts against children, elders, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless—it is breathtaking.

Yet I urge you: do not let your spirit run dry by railing against these times. Especially, do not lose hope. For we were made for this. For years we have been practicing, preparing, training—waiting to meet this exact moment of engagement.

I grew up on the Great Lakes, and I know a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels on the waters than there are right now, across the world. They are provisioned, awake, 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. Though your own timbers may shiver in every wave of this storm, I assure you that the wood of your vessel comes from a greater forest—grain that knows how to withstand storms, to hold together, and to move forward regardless.

In any dark time, there is a tendency to focus on all that is wrong in the world. Do not focus there. Do not fall into despair by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is bending in the wind without raising the sails. We are needed, that is all we can know.

Though we meet resistance, we will also meet great souls who will hail us, love us, guide us. And we will know them when they appear. Did you not say you were a believer? Did you not say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Do you not remember that to be in grace is to submit to that voice?

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 will help immensely. We are not given to know which act, or whose act, will cause the critical mass to tip toward enduring good. What is needed for change is the accumulation of acts—adding, adding, adding. It has never taken everyone on earth, only a small, determined group who will not give up.

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do in a stormy world is to show your soul. On deck, it shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, sends out flares, builds signal fires. To display the lantern of the soul in shadowy times—to be fierce and to show mercy—these are acts of immense bravery and necessity.

Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you wish to help calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.

There will always be times when you are discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life. But I do not give it care. I do not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.

Why? Because in my very bones I know something, as do you: 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 alone—they are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here.

In that spirit, write this upon your wall:

When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe. But that is not what great ships are built for.

This comes with much love and with a prayer that you remember who you came from, and why you came to this beautiful, needful Earth.