Pineridge Blog

On this Ground Hog Day we realize that we have much more in common with the furry weather rodent than we would like to admit.  Almost all of us fear seeing our shadows, personal and perhaps national, more than just about anything else.  Before you dive back into your burrow and pull the covers up over your head for another six weeks, please read this great piece a wise person shared with me 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 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.
 
“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.
 
“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.”

Happy Ground Hog Day!

Peace+,

Jim