ANOTHER OF-GOD PARADOX

 We cannot become humble by mere intellect or willpower....All we can really do is become more aware of our pride or vanity by noticing how we respond to even minor slights or humiliations. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," December 15, 2020

Oh my, how we respond to even minor slights or humiliations surely sings my song. By our response we give weight...either to our egoic self or to our spiritual center. 

Our egoic self responds in kind...personally, i.e., negatively...maintaining our self-bondage; our spiritual center is our Oned Self which recognizes no slight or humiliation, ergo no response. 

As I write this, I am embarrassingly aware that I know this from my eyebrows up...my head and half my heart are nattering right this minute about the various people who are not  "doing it right" in my life. According to me. 

Oh wait, that's not all...how I am going to rise above it...show them how it's done. 

Ah, but I know I am heading in the right direction by the siren song of my beloved character defect...I am taking myself too seriously. 

I can read, study, ponder the Sermon, Rohr, et al., till my face falls off...all of which are good and necessary...but until, in my own head all by myself alone, I am breathing those words that I'm agreeing with, I am wandering aimlessly in that great wasteland of mental mire, a.k.a., secret self-admiration. 

Quick...my sliver of gold: I know I am heading in the right direction, detours and all. I am a student,  sometimes a slow-learner, sometimes a quick-study, but a student who has found her rightful teacher, her place, her home: All Alone hunkered down with my peeps...just another of-God paradox.

Thank you.