Humility, The Gift That Keeps on Giving

I started rummaging around WordPress to see if there were any kindred spirits out there.  I may have found one at “sophiespress.”  I haven’t read her entire blog but it looks interesting so far.  I just read something about the practice of humility.

I think it’s a rare find in our country to find people who are truly humble-like me!  (Just kidding)  To me, humility in it’s most honest sense is not self deprecation but the capacity to acknowledge our place in the vastness of humanity and in our natural world.  It is the capacity to take up our space and live according to our purpose with grace without judgement of ourselves or of another. 

Sophiespress  talks about “defects” and “embracing our humanness” and “acknowledging when we screw up.”  Her version of humility includes “finding beauty in the defects.”  But I wonder for her, where the kindness is in acknowledging some quality as a “defect” at all.  Who gets to decide what perfect is?  Who has defined that for us?  Who has defined what is defective?  It’s all in our own perception.  One can easily declare anything as defective as it is beautiful and vice versa.  Why do we get caught up in all of that anyway?  I think it’s that we are constantly comparing ourselves to others, hoping to measure up to some standard that someone else has set for themselves.  We are stuck in middle-school mentality when those perceptions really get enmeshed.

Humility is simply to acknowledge what is – is.  That’s all.  My nose curves up.  I made a mistake in that conversation.  I treated my patient and she felt much better.  I am 5 feet 11 inches tall and 220 pounds.  If I judge all of that as good, bad or otherwise, I create some sort of attachment to the judgement.  If I simply acknowledge what is, then I can let it go, make the changes I want to make or move on.  Humility requires letting go. Otherwise ego gets involved shortly thereafter and then you have a real mess!  ;)

I could go on and on about this because I love to hear myself think.  But my commitment is to make offerings that serve others- not just myself.

I think we need to lighten up a little.  Humility requires no real energy.  In fact, when we get to big for our britches, something tends to come along and balance things out a bit.  That’s certainly MY experience!  How about yours?