No Latina woman would be called ‘Ms.’ – that’s an invention of middle-class Anglo women. Latina women are proud to be called ‘Mrs.’ That simply means that we have a family. – 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. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Modern storytellers are the descendants of an immense and ancient community of holy people, troubadours, bards, griots, cantadoras, cantors, traveling poets, bums, hags, and crazy people. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
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. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
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. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
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. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
The drive toward Life is protective, thoughtful, vulnerable, and invested in immaculate love. It is this last that marks the difference between a wise heart muddy with real life experiences in the trenches and a dry heart that functions on rote concepts alone. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
There’s a reason poets often say, ‘Poetry saved my life,’ for often the blank page is the only one listening to the soul’s suffering, the only one registering the story completely, the only one receiving all softly and without condemnation. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Many people have trouble with forgiveness because they have been taught it is a singular act to be completed in one sitting. That is not so. Forgiveness has many layers, many seasons. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
If you’ve lost focus, just sit down and be still. Take the idea and rock it to and fro. Keep some of it and throw some away, and it will renew itself. You need do no more. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
This kind of forgetting does not erase memory, it lays the emotion surrounding the memory to rest. – 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. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
It is in the middle of misery that so much becomes clear. The one who says nothing good comes of this is not yet listening. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
When you feel bad, find a person to talk to and cry with, to tell of your anger and other helpless feelings. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
When women reassert their relationship with the wildish nature, they are gifted with a permanent and internal watcher, a knower, a visionary, an oracle, an inspiratrice, an intuitive, a maker, a creator, an inventor, and a listener who guide, suggest, and urge vibrant life in the inner and outer world. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Cynicism means the conduit to the soul has a great kink in it, like a garden hose in which nothing flows in either direction. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
How does one know if she has forgiven? You tend to feel sorrow over the circumstance instead of rage, you tend to feel sorry for the person rather than angry with him. You tend to have nothing left to say about it all. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
People used to grow up in small communities where folk wisdom was passed down. But we don’t live there anymore. We can’t go next door to your aunt and ask her for the answers. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
You know the best thing about having a house? You get to plant whatever you want in the yard and watch it grow. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Wolves and women are relational by nature, inquiring, possessed of great endurance and strength. They are deeply intuitive, intensely concerned with their young, their mate and their pack. Yet both have been hounded, harassed and falsely imputed to be devouring and devious, overly aggressive, of less value than those who are their detractors. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and you laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
In our time, there are still many, like those in the Good Samaritan story, who being of the religious classes in that time, purposely crossed to the other side of the road, and passed by the injured and bleeding. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
