We Were Made For These Times

In the past, religion has taught us that we are, intrinsically, evil.

That is a lie. How can anything made of the cloth of God be based in evil?

Look at the heroism and courage we see in the South. Look at the strength and love and giving among people there.

It is time to stop condemning humanity for its dark side - thus condemning us to failure - and time to begin believing in our inherent goodness.

We have the spark of God within us and as Clarissa Pinkola Estes writes, we are made for these times, to transform them with love.

If you have not read it before, may her poem below give you strength and comfort.

Clyo

We Were Made for These Times

Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Author of Women who run with Wolves

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

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