“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.”
A few weeks ago when I was in Portland, I had the privilege of attending a talk by Lisa Davis on the topic of Vision. There were many “aha moments” for me during Lisa’s talk, one of which was at the end where she read a letter from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, author of Women Who Run with the Wolves.
The timing of the message from this letter is as appropriate today as it was when it was written ten years ago, perhaps even more so as our world and economy face even greater challenges. It’s easy to get caught up in world events and feel helpless at times but as Estés points out, we can weather the storms. We are more prepared than we realize, and she says it best in the opening lines, “We were made for these times.” The letter is a bit lengthy but I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, I’d love to hear your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below.
Do Not Lose Heart, We Were Made for These Times
by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Mis estimados,
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. It is true, one has to have strong cojones and ovarios to withstand much of what passes for “good” in our culture today. Abject disregard of what the soul finds most precious and irreplaceable and the corruption of principled ideals have become, in some large societal arenas, “the new normal,” the grotesquerie of the week.
It is hard to say which one of the current egregious matters has rocked people’s worlds and beliefs more. Ours is a time of almost daily jaw-dropping 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.
