Safe harbour is not what great ships are built for

This is my last post on Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ short essay “You were made for this”. 

The final idea of this amazing piece is about the purpose of great ships. 

“When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.”

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

We often search for the safety and comfort of harbour. And fair enough too, the seas can be rough. But harbour is for refitting, re-supply and repairs – it’s not where we were made to live. 

Great ships belong out on the sea and this too is where we belong – in the thick of it. Occasionally battered by storms but mostly riding the waves. A life spent in harbour is a life that denies our purpose and capabilities. A life which denies our obligation to stretch out and “mend the part of the world that is within our reach”. 

After all, we were made for this.