There is an emerging consensus that we humans of planet earth are in a time of systems collapse. Systems we have built – e.g. health care, education, government, religion, politics, economics, law … etc. are in disarray. At the same time, creation itself, and creation’s multiple eco-systems, are in a time of ecological collapse, brought on by human greed, violence, and short-sightedness.
Welcome to September 2022! A difficult time for our species and for our planet.
I can feel quite discouraged as I take in this reality more fully. To be able to look clearly at the difficult truths of our present time, and not despair, I find myself returning again and again to a quote from Clarissa Pinkola Estes that first came into my life many years ago. Pinkola Estes writes:
We were made for these times.
Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet, I urge you…
to please not spend your spirit by bewailing these difficult times.
Especially do not lose hope.1
We were made for these times! When I find myself disheartened by the entrenched problems of our time, particularly those related to escalating climate change – which became climate crisis, and is now climate calamity – it is hard to believe that I was made for this time.
Still, on a deeper level, I know it’s true.
By nature, I am an optimistic person. Through no effort of my own, I am inclined to see a half full rather than a half empty glass. However, life has also taught me that there are seasons when optimism is not enough. In the soul-searing moments when ordered worlds collapse and certitudes crumble, when loved ones die, when the tragic enormity of events seem impervious to change by personal and collective efforts, when the pain of living is like having skin torn away from flesh, I need a greater strength than optimism can provide.
Life has taught me the truth of power in powerlessness. Alcoholics Anonymous calls it “hitting bottom”. When everything else is gone, and I accept that truth, new possibilities emerge. As womanist theologians have emphasized for generations, “God will make a way where there is no way”.
Pinkola Estes goes on to say:
For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement. I cannot tell you often enough that we are definitely the leaders we have been waiting for, and that we have been raised since childhood for this time precisely.2
I hold on to this hope, and with clear eyes step forward. We are the leaders we have been waiting for. We were made for these times.
1 Clarissa Pinkola Estes: “Letter To A Young Activist” Accessed at: https://www.mavenproductions.com/letter-to-a-young-activist
2 Ibid.
Veronica Dunne is a Sister of our Lady of the Missions (RNDM), who has primarily worked as an educator and counsellor in institutional and community based settings in Canada. She has also served with the RNDMs outside of Canada in Senegal, Peru, and Aotearoa New Zealand.
A 2002 Doctor of Ministry graduate from the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto School of Theology at the University of Toronto, she subsequently served as director of the Doctor of Ministry program at St. Stephen’s College at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Her current research interests are in eco-theology and cosmology, and their intersections with indigenous cosmologies and spiritualties.
She presently serves on the RNDM leadership team in Canada.
A powerful reflection on hope; thank you Veronica. That “we were made for these times” is a worthwhile mantra in the midst of civilization collapse; something new is being born when we have the “eyes” to see it…and I usually cannot see without the help of others, like yourself.