Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes and synchronicity ...

I was talking to a friend tonight, and I told her that I discover myself through stories, in every way. I find out who I am by reading fiction, and I find out who I am by writing fiction.

But I didn't know I did this until I began to read Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes's Women who Run with the Wolves. Years ago I and several others worked with a wise woman who introduced us to Women who Run with the Wolves. We read it, week by week, and we met to discuss how we related to each ancient story, and Estes's Jungian interpretation, in each chapter. And it was in this reading and discussing that I understood, deeply, the power of story in life and the power of story in my life.

And tonight, as I was thinking about all this, I wondered whether Dr Estes blogged ... and I find that she does, here. The blog is called The Moderate Voice and there are many writers on it, but Estes's most recent post is about the death of Pavarotti: she writes about the story of his life, the deep story, the archetypal story, the operatic story, the mythic story, the healing story and the story of the little boy who slept

in a tiny kitchen in a little fold-up bed made of iron

It was a piece of synchronicity that I found Estes's blog tonight, but the world needs her ability to understand how much we need stories, and to write them, all the time. Especially when times are dark.