It has never been harder and more imperative than ever to accept the challenge offered by Clarissa Pinkola Estes when she wrote, in 2001, “Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.” And, as Gandolph said to Frodo, when Frodo lamented, “I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.” “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

It feels to me like we are in an overwhelming, fast-flowing white water rapids period of reality and history. Honestly, conditions and circumstances I never imagined would be my experience in my 6^th decade of life. But here we are. Until recent years, maybe the last decade or two, I naively believed that democracy was a given. That hard fought wins would be the unchallenged status quo in perpetuity. I did not imagine that human rights are something that always need to be fought for. This is the lull of having grown up and come to adulthood in the relatively stable decades of the 70s to the 2000s. What a wakeup call.

How are white rapids survived? How do we find our way? As the Hopi Elders’ Prophecy, We are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For, from 2000, says: “There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.”

To find our footing, we need to find a way to navigate the rapids and then find our way out. To do that we need to allow ourselves to be carried by the current until we find a place of refuge, where we can find our footing. While this is happening, we must avoid entrapment or underwater obstacles where danger can engulf us. In today’s world, entrapment could mean becoming lost in “doom scrolling” on our social media feeds or news apps. And there are so many places and ways we can find refuge – we just need to focus and to choose.

Here are a few suggestions for remembering that “we were made for these times” and “we are the ones we have been waiting for”.

1. Reduce and limit social media scrolling and news watching. My own time dedicated to this has been significantly reduced compared to before the US election. It is possible to stay aware of what is going on in the world simply by perusing headlines and dedicating limited time to these endeavours, without staying long enough to be overwhelmed or to despair.
2. Notice what is draining you or uplifting you. Turn your attention to sources of inspiration and focus your time on what uplifts you. Give yourself permission to do this because it is okay to find joy, laughter and connection to sustain yourself.
3. Become aware of the conversations that drain your energy, evoke despair or anger. I seem to have a deep well of anger that surfaces if I pay too much attention to politics or the wars that are being waged – because I am an empath and because the harm to people wounds my heart and my spirit. When I become aware this is happening, I pull out my boundaries and turn my attention or the conversation elsewhere.
4. Read the full Hopi Prophecy and Clarissa Pinkola Estes full essay as well as other poets and authors who offer reminders of courage and inspiration.
5. Focus on what is within your control or influence and be or do those things. Sometimes it can take some effort to get started but once in motion it gets easier whether this is writing, meditating, activity, exercise, advocacy or whatever else feels meaningful or helpful to you.
6. Deepen spiritual or mindfulness practices. They remind us that there is more to the world than the physicality of it and that minding our energy – what we take in and what we give off – is extraordinarily important and life giving.
7. Know who your people are and hold them close. This can be family, friends, colleagues, authors, poets or people you follow who remind you of the humanity that is still flourishing out there. In another post, I provide a list of people and groups that provide me with inspiration. I may have lost faith in some humans but I have not lost faith in humanity.
8. Create. Art. Crafts. Poetry. Other writing. Offerings that are in service to yourself and maybe in service to others. Remember we are not chasing perfection, we are evoking what is true for us in any given moment and sharing that to remind ourselves and each other that there are many ways of expression available to us.
9. Be a spark of light. Este says, “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. 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.

Personally, I am deep in creation with my partner Jerry Nagel and with my dear friend Dana Pearlman (Inner Wisdom Lab). I share more about that in this other post as well as links to some of our work. Jerry and I engage in Shades of Life Conversations with our dear friend Tenneson Woolf. These conversations are timely and nourishing.

Take care of yourself. Pay attention to what nourishes you. Extend this umbrella to the people you care about.  We are the ones we’ve been waiting for and we were made for these times.