I started to write on another topic this morning and I came across the writing below. I am guided to share this writing.
We are like silkworms; we make the thread out of our own substance and spin the cocoon, and in the course of time are imprisoned inside. But this is not forever. In that cocoon we shall develop spiritual realization, and like the butterfly come out free. This network of Karma we have woven around ourselves; and in our ignorance we feel as if we are bound, and weep and wail for help. But help does not come from without; it comes from within us. Cry to all the gods in the universe. I cried for years, and in the end I found that I was helped. But help came from within. And I had to undo what I had done by mistake. That is the only way. I had to cut the net which I had thrown round myself, and the power to do this is within. Of this I am certain that not one aspiration, well-guided or ill-guided in my life, has been in vain, but that I am the resultant of all my past, both good and evil. I have committed many mistakes in my life; but mark you, I am sure of this that without every one of those mistakes I would not be what I am today, and so I am quite satisfied to have made them. I do not mean that you are to go home and willfully commit mistakes; do not misunderstand me in that way. But do not mope because of the mistakes you have committed, but know that in the end all will come out straight. It cannot be otherwise, because goodness is our nature, purity is our nature, and that nature can never be destroyed. Our essential nature always remains the same. —Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, (8 Vol. set), Volume 2 
Spiritual Clarity 