HUMILITY

I'm thinking of how often in the past I've been wrong about things. I've made assumptions about people - that one is uninteresting, that one is wearing the wrong shoes, that one will never see the solution right in front of his face. I've made snap judgments, misunderstood intentions, proudly spouted what I see now was absolute nonsense.
     Sometimes I like to remember the times I was wrong because they show me how far I've come. I hear something I said twenty years ago and instead of cringing with embarrassment I want to throw my arms around that poor misguided girl. You'll see, I want to say, you'll see how much you're going to change. 
    Remembering is humbling and I like the feeling of humility, which is a far cry from humiliation. Humility opens me up and helps me feel right-sized. It gives me the sense that all of us are fallible, sometimes living in illusion, sometimes deluded by self-interest or insecurity. Humility tells me that I'm no different than anyone else and sometimes that thought floods me with compassion, with love for us all.