June 23

HUMILITY  MONTH: DAY 23: “In the history of the world many souls have been, are, and will be, and with a little reflection this is marvelous and not depressing. Many jerks are made gloomy about it, for they think quantity buries them alive. That’s just crazy. Numbers are very dangerous, but the main thing about them is that they humble your pride. And that’s good.”― Saul Bellow

We all think our “stuff” is important, unique, earth-shattering, etc. It isn’t. In the grand scheme of things, it is really wonderful to sit with the temporary-ness of all our “stuff.”

My story is just a story. It ain’t that big a deal. It may be all I have right now, but it is ephemeral in the bigness of time and space. I forget that and get all caught up in my stuff.

I love my stuff and my story. They can be an often focus of my time and attention. I get really balled-up when that happens. What is fun is to ask myself, “So what? Who will care about this in 2 weeks, or 2 years, or 200 years?” Takes the wind right out of my sails. Takes the Ego right out of its place of prominence and into a good space of being right-sized again.

The less I focus on my “stuff” or my story, the better. I can work these steps and get on with living life as it comes to me.

When I hit that road bump that I know I will hit; I know because it happens all the time, I readjust my pace and pay attention to what is happening. If I am mindful with my life and attitudes and behaviors, I will have to adjust less and less often. Yay!

But each time I adjust, there is a step to work, sometimes more than one. Yay! I don’t always say that right away, but I love that the same solution has applied 10,000 times (or more) in this journey. I may be sure that it is a new and different issue this time, but it hasn’t been so far. It is always me needing to adjust my attitude and stop playing in my character defects and old ideas. Oh! Okay…let’s do this work and get on with life. Soon, I am back on the path and feeling even better for having taken responsibility for my shit and cleaning it up again…and again…and again…isn’t that wonderful???