Clarissa Pinkola Estes Quotes - Page 6

When women are relegated to moods, mannerisms, and contours that conform to a single ideal of beauty and behavior, they are captured in both body and soul, and are no longer free.

I am built close to the ground and of extravagant body.

The craft of questions, the craft of stories, the craft of the hands - all these are the making of something, and that something is soul. Anytime we feed soul, it guarantees increase.

Our own sorrows seem heavy enough, even when lifted by certain long-term joys. But watching others hurt is the breaker of most any heart.

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.

This kind of forgetting does not erase memory, it lays the emotion surrounding the memory to rest.

We practice conscious forgetting by refusing to summon up the fiery material, we refuse to recollect. To forget is an active, not a passive, endeavor. It means to not haul up certain materials, or turn them over and over, to not work oneself up by repetitive thought, picture, or emotion.

When you feel bad, find a person to talk to and cry with, to tell of your anger and other helpless feelings.

If women were in charge of everything, there would be women tyrants. If black people were in charge, there would be black tyrants. If Hispanics were in charge, then Hispanic tyrants.

Wolves never look more funny than when they have lost the scent and scrabble to find it again: they hop in the air; they run in circles, they plow up the ground with their noses . . . .

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

Asking the proper question is the central act of transformation!

God forgives us. ... Who am I not to forgive?

Stories are medicine.

Since time out of mind, a considered act of heroism has been the cure for stultifying ambivalence.

we wish to make rage into a fire that cooks things rather than a fire of conflagration.

To adjoin the instinctual nature does not mean to come undone, change everything from left to right, from black to white, to move the east to west, to act crazy or out of control. It does not mean to lose one's primary socializations, or to become less human. It means quite the opposite. The wild nature has a vast integrity to it

Nurture is like psychic Wheaties.

Art is not meant to be created in stolen moments only.

Latina women are proud to be called Mrs. That simply means that we have a family.

The deterioration of symbols is natural. They wear out, needing to be reclaimed, recreated; returned to the spirit.

We all wish to be brave and strong in the face of disaster. We all wish to be looked up to for our endurance and efforts to help others.