Humility, Anonymous

Just having read the section on humility in Everyday Holiness, I’m struck by the genius of finding one’s place and being comfortable in it as a working definition of humility and the idea that so much else in our ethical and spiritual lives is dependent on a personal comfort with this sense of place. 

I think much of my dissatisfaction with life as a younger person stemmed from a feeling of not having a place, the stress of finding my way, which skewed my personal compass in multiple dimensions of my life. It’s being comfortable enough in my own skin to observe and feel my environment and respond to others that in a way enables them to make the space even better for all of us. 

I resist (sometimes successfully, sometimes unsuccessfully) my ego’s need for ever more recognition and praise, and try to remember to offer more to those around me. This is not trivial in today’s “attention economy” of social media, but what do the sages say, “It’s the little things that make the difference”? Find a place and be there for those around you. Can it be that simple?