spring

In all things of nature
there is something
of the marvelous.

Throughout my life, by means of my life, the world has little by little caught fire in my sight, until, a flame all around me, it has become almost luminous from within. Such has been my experience in contact with the Earth. The diaphany of the divine at the heart of the universe on fire.

The word humility, like the human, comes from humus, or earth. We are most human when we do no great things. We are not so important; we are simple dust and spirit—at best, loving midwives, participants in a process much larger than we. If we are quiet and listen and feel how things move, perhaps we will be wise enough to put our hands on what waits to be born, and bless it with kindness and care.

The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.

The way of hubris . . . pretends that we can be well by dispersing, by breaking down life's oneness into entirely unrelated compartments. And it pretends that we can be well by depriving, by denying to others and to other species what we ourselves most cherish. "By way of contrast," says Hildegard [of Bingen], "humility does not rob people or take anything from them. Rather, it holds together everything in love." The way of humility . . . remembers the sacred Ground of being within us all. And it knows that we will be truly well to the extent that we love one another.

Cooperation and humbleness always go together. Humbleness is seeing that everyone's path through earth school is as difficult as yours, and as important. It is not pretending that you are meek, or inferior. It is making the music together that cannot be made alone, and that cannot be made without the music that only you, alone, can make.

We need a coat with two pockets. In one pocket there is dust, and in the other pocket there is gold. We need a coat with two pockets to remind us who we are.

If we will only learn silence, we will learn two things: to pray and to be humble. You cannot love unless you have humility, and you cannot be humble if you do not love. From the silence of the heart God speaks.

A humble attitude requires an agile spirit, one that "shakes the dust off" and moves on. The modern world equates humility with submission, which breeds nothing but guilt or self-loathing, that leaves one preoccupied with "worthlessness" and stuck in a narcissistic loop. True humility liberates and produces self-love and love of others, not guilt or resentment... And authentic humility generates power by taking radical responsibility for ourselves, even responsibility (though not blame) for things beyond our control. Humility is a discipline in search of the true spiritual goal—to love.

In the beginning, there was Love, and Love created and thus became Creator. I give all honor and glory and my humblest gratitude to the Creator for giving me the gift of life in Love held so delicately in each and every breath, and for guiding me to an experience where I could learn the power, magic, and understanding of just how incredible this gift really is. For the rest of my life, I will do everything within my power to honor, cherish, and protect this gift of life that connects us all.