Humility

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”

― Ernest Hemingway

Did you ever do something as a child and get grounded? If you are like most pioneers who stepped outside the box, I am sure you did! It always was a funny phrase for punishment: “You are grounded.” As an adult, I am continually striving to be in the mindset of groundedness through meditation and reflection. The fact that I was born under the sign Capricorn, an earth sign, to be grounded is in my very nature. To become better than I was yesterday and by recognizing that I am just a slice of the Universe.

We learned as children, we are of the earth to return to the earth. Humus…which is the soil formed by all that has broken down and rotted to create the place where new things grow. A word that springs from the word humus is Humility and being humble. Humility is a Civil Grace not because we are called to be lower than the dirt, but that we are called to embrace life with wonder and to be grounded in the knowledge that we belong here. There is something essential about our very nature that we came into being in this time and space.

Humility allows us to realize that maybe we don’t have all the answers. That life is about living in the mystery of the questions, and the most important questions we can answer are: Who am I? What ignites my passions? What does this mean to all my relations to the people in my life, to my work, and to my world? Can you imagine a world where we all lived from our true essence, from a space of Humility and wonder? I can imagine that we would try less to impress and possess. We would be open to solutions and would be able to recognize them when they presented themselves. We live in on a planet that scientists believe to be over 4.5 billion years old and a Universe that exceeds our ability to comprehend time and space. Physicists believe we came from elements of stardust connected to all of the atoms of our galaxy, and there is a more profound connection we all share, including to our natural world.

We are experiencing times of significant change when the old systems of a controlling culture–our institutions and ideologies–no longer seem to be working. Something new is emerging, and people around the globe are asking, “is there a better way?” Socrates, the early philosopher and considered to be the father of Western Philosophy, stated, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Looking at the surface, it can be overwhelming. Yet according to the mathematical ratio, the Golden Portion, while things may seem in chaos, the solution is there. Everything expands upward and eventually reaches harmony, including us.

Humility invites us to go deep within and to get grounded in our core. To not be swayed by the winds that swirl around but to explore our inner spirit. What is this all about, and how can I help? It is the call to see the dichotomy that we live in the world but are not of it. We share our very nature with all of life on the planet and therefore have a responsibility to take care of it. In the end, we are just soil and stardust.

So in these months, as we head into winter and the darkness pervades, take time to consider the grace that Humility brings. Go within and answer the three essential questions. A new year is coming, and change is on the way. The world needs your gifts.

photo credit: Vince Moro