HUMILITY MONTH: DAY 9: “But self-abasement is just inverted egoism. Anyone who acts with genuine humility will be as far from humiliation as from arrogance.” ― Stephen Mitchell
Yeah, any time I am focused on ME, I am not practicing humility. Focusing on you and how I can serve, help and be there for YOU is humbling.
I love this step! I love to listen to new members talk about it. They share how they are working on their character defects, and I think this is brilliant!
We cannot do it. That is the point. We cannot do anything but practice behaviors and attitudes that take us away from US. But removing them, that is something we cannot do. It is like the drinking and drugging. If it were a matter of just laying it all down, it would be so simple.
What needs to happen is an eye-opening understanding of what they are and how they become necessary in the first place. Behaviors exist because we believe they work for us to do something we are trying to achieve.
If I could just erase these things, I would not need to consistently and more deeply work these steps in my everyday life over years and years and years.
But I do, because the “causes and conditions” continue to exist. These default settings in my brain cannot and will not be permanently removed. This is a daily practice, learning to live like less of an asshat.
But I cannot dwell entirely there. I must go on about the business of living. Approaching each opportunity for learning and serving that might be placed in front of me. It happens all the time, day in and day out.
We get these challenges to grow and heal and love and learn. It is amazing and the sun never sets on me the same way it did before. It is always a miracle when it rises, and it always closes a new chapter when it sets. I cannot fathom anything more beautiful than that. I just show up. I have nothing to do with any of it, but I am blessed to know these things.
Dolphin Hug 