“It is that holy poetry and singing we are after. ... It is the wild singing we are after, our chance to use the wild language we are learning by heart under the sea. When a woman speaks her truth, fires up her intention and feeling, staying tight with the instinctive nature, she is singing, she is living in the wild breath-stream of the soul. To live this way is a cycle in itself, one meant to go on, go on, go on.” WayHeartSoulUseFeelingsSpeakLanguageChanceFireSeaGoes OnHolySingingBreathsIntentionStreamsStayingCycles Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“Ritual is one of the ways in which humans put their lives in perspective, whether it be Purim, Advent, or drawing down the moon. Ritual calls together the shades and specters in people's lives, sorts them out, puts them to rest.” PeopleWayHumansTogetherPerspectiveMoonDrawingRitualShadeAdvent Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“Three things differentiate living from the soul verses living from the ego only: the ability to sense and learn new ways, the tenacity to ride a rough road, and the patience to learn deep love over time.” WaySoulThreeAbilityEgoRoughVersesNew WaysThree ThingsTenacityDeep LoveDifferentiate Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“Stories set the inner life into motion, and this is particularly important where the inner life is frightened, wedged, or cornered. Story greases the hoists and pulleys, it causes adrenaline to surge, shows us the way out, down, or up, and for our trouble, cuts for us fine wide doors in previously blank walls, openings that lead to the dreamland, that lead to love and learning, that lead us back to our own real lives as knowing wildish women.” WayImportantRealStoriesShowsLife IsCausesKnowingCuttingTroubleDoorsWallFineWideReal LifeOpeningFrightenedBlankInner LifeAdrenalineGreaseCorneredDreamlandPulleys Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“To be poor and be without trees, is to be the most starved human being in the world. To be poor and have trees, is to be completely rich in ways that money can never buy.” WorldWayHumansHuman BeingsPoorRichTreeConservationArbor Day Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“Forgiveness is an act of creation. You can choose from many ways to do it. You can forgive for now, forgive till then, forgive till the next time, forgive but give no more chances it’s a whole new game if there is another incident. You can give one more chance, give several more chances, give many chances, give chances only if. You can forgive part, all, or half of the offense. You can devise a blanket of forgiveness. You decide” IfsWayGivingWholeNextGamesChanceHalfCreationForgivingOffenseNext TimeIncidentsBlanket Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“Though fairy tales end after ten pages, our lives do not. We are multi-volume sets. In our lives, even though one episode amounts to a crash and burn, there is always another episode awaiting us and then another. There are always more opportunities to get it right, to fashion our lives in the ways we deserve to have them. Don't waste your time hating a failure. Failure is a greater teacher than success.” WayEndsHateOpportunityGreaterTeacherOur LivesFashionAmountTenWastePagesDeserveTalesFairyFairy TaleEpisodesVolumeCrashDon't Waste Your Time Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“What is that which can never die It is that faithful force that is born into us that one that is greater than us that calls new seed to the open and battered and barren places so that we can be resown. It is this force in its insistence in its loyalty to us in its love of us in its most often mysterious ways that is far greater far more majestic and far more ancient than any heretofore ever known.” WayDiesForceBornKnownGreaterAncientSeedsLoyaltyMysteriousFaithfulBarrenMajesticInsistenceBatteredMysterious Ways Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“The way to maintain one's connection to the wild is to ask yourself what it is that you want. This is the sorting of the seed from the dirt. One of the most important discriminations we can make in this matter is the difference between things that beckon to us and things that call from our souls.” WayWantImportantSoulMatterAsksDifferencesConnectionsSeedsDiscriminationDirtSorting Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“When we accept our own wild beauty, it is put into perspective, and we are no longer poignantly aware of it anymore, but neither would we forsake it or disclaim it either. Does a wolf know how beautiful she is when she leaps? Does a feline know what beautiful shapes she makes when she sits? Is a bird awed by the sound it hears when it snaps open its wings? Learning from them, we just act in our own true way and do not draw back from or hide our natural beauty. Like the creatures, we just are, and it is right.” KnowsWayDoeBeautifulSoundNaturalAcceptingKnow HowPerspectiveShapesCreaturesDrawsBirdWingsLeapSnapsForsakeFelineWild BeautyHow Beautiful She Is Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“To be strong does not mean to sprout muscles and flex. It means meeting one's own numinosity without fleeing, actively living with the wild nature in one's own way. It means to be able to learn, to be able to stand what we know. It means to stand and live.” KnowsWayMeanDoeAbleStrongStrengthMeetingsMusclesFleeingSproutsThe Wild Nature Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“Solitude is not an absence of energy or action, as some believe, but is rather a boon of wild provisions transmitted to us from the soul. In ancient times, purposeful solitude was both palliative and preventative. It was used to heal fatigue and to prevent weariness. It was also used as an oracle, as a way of listening to the inner self to solicit advice and guidance otherwise impossible to hear in the din of daily life.” WayBelieveSoulSelfActionUsedEnergyImpossibleAdviceListeningSolitudeAncientAbsenceHealGuidanceDaily LifeFatigueProvisionInner SelfWearinessBoonOraclesAncient Times Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“I became married at a young age and had two daughters and divorced at 26. I had to go on welfare to make ends meet. I had no way to support myself.” WayTwoEndsAgeYoungMotherSupportGoes OnMarriedDaughterWelfareDivorcedYoung AgeTwo Daughters Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“Some say that sudden knowledge of mystical matters is accomplished only in complete quietude, or that Creator, in one of God's many forms, appears only in orderly ways that are beauteous and picturesque, or that the mystical appears only in completely silent ways. All are true. Except for the 'only' part.” WayMatterFormSilentCreatorAccomplishedMysticalOrderlyPicturesque Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
