A Prayer

by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Refuse to fall down.

If you cannot refuse to fall down, refuse to stay down.

If you cannot refuse to stay down, 

lift you heart toward heaven, 

and like a hungry beggar,

ask that it be filled—

and it will be filled.

You may be pushed down. 

You may be kept from rising. 

But no one can keep you from 

lifting your heart toward heaven—

only you.

It is in the midst of misery that so much becomes clear. 

The one who says nothing good came of this,

is not yet listening.

Pinkola Estes, Clarissa. The Faithful Gardener, Harper Collins, San Francisco, 1995.