I am reading Wayne Muller‘s Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest. He shared the following: “The word humility, like the word human, comes from humus, or earth. We are most human when we do no great things. … We are simply dust and spirit–at best loving midwives, participants in a process much larger than we. … We are granted the tremendous blessing of knowing that we do very little at all by ourselves” (p. 176).
He closed that chapter with a short, tongue-in-cheek poem by Robert Aitken Roshi who examined more closely humility and the role of soil in the human condition:
When people praise me for something
I vow with all being
to return to my vegetable garden
and give credit where credit is due.
Amazing how a simple poem made up of four lines…can get the mind to wander…and wander…and then ‘wonder’!
Beautiful!
P.S I am aware a simplistic poem is by no means a simplistic poem!
There is a new term, simplexity, which takes the simple and the complex and combines them. I worked backwards from the poem. Take care and have a good day.
Sounds like a great read with profoundly simplistic ideas. Understandings that our inner self has for whatever reason lost along the way or we just simply ignor.
K
It is an easy read with simple thoughts that move one forward I think. He talks about the things we can do easily in our lives i.e. light a candle before a meal, so it makes things easy and simple, but complex.
PS I will lend you the book when we get home and see you again.
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