This post was updated in November 2020.

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

A meditation

Listening to a meditation by Tara Brach I was reminded that we were made for these times.   She quoted Clarissa Pinkola Estes’s incredible piece of writing which I’ve included at the bottom of this post. Read it, let the meaning settle in. Perhaps like me it will resonate at some deep level, awakening something within.

We need to live differently

Our collective actions, up until now, have created the mess on our planet. Therefore, we are the ones who can clean and tidy up. We can help save we can from this wreckage and use it as the foundations for something new. Together we created the situation, wee voted for it, supported it through our purse, turned a blind eye or blatantly engaged in it.  So together we can create a reset and fresh start.

No blame

It is not a time for blame or shame. Petty arguments and fighting don’t work, have never worked and only serve to distract us from the problem in hand. There is no techno fix or magic bullet that will get us out of this, no other planet to escape to ( despite what some may think).

This is it.

We are the generation, the people of the earth being called to act for the sake of all of life on earth.

We were made for these times.

Talking is not enough

It is not enough to talk about it anymore, we must act. In this action we need to be deliberate, precise and prudent with what we do. We must be careful about how and where we use our energy. If you listen deeply to your heart it will help connect you with what the planet is calling for.  Give this your attention and the required action will follow.

This is the practice of Radical Self Care.

We were made for these times

“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………

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 

You are a great ship, what were you built for?