Let Your Soul Light Shine Bright

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<center><font size= " 4 " ><b>Let Your Soul Light Shine Bright</b>

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By Clarissa Pinkola Estes

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.

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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.

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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