Humility

Humility.  Incarnation.

The assignment was to construct an experience where we were setting aside our rights on behalf of another's, where we were emptying ourselves in order to see Divine life flow down.

I don't feel like it went like that!

As one of the students, Kara, said - "This is one of those times where the assignment finds us."  I found that to be only too true in my case.  The assignment was given on Thursday, and on Friday morning I found myself in a Peacemaker Mediation proceeding, with others, seeking to understand and be understood, looking for some common ground and a solution to our differences.  It was a business dispute regarding something in the past, of which the details are not important.  I don't really even like to write about it, or publish it on the web.  I want to honor the parties involved.  But the fact is that these issues, these situations, are not far from any of us, and in this case not far from me.

We came to some resolution regarding the issue at hand, and then I struggled.  I had a hard time recovering from a somewhat intense period of my life.  I questioned the process, the outcome;  I felt emotionally depleted;  I don't think this is the kind of "emptying" that the assignment envisioned!  But there was an opportunity to exercise humility, to try to understand, to not seek my own interest, to continue to reach out.  Several times in the process I recalled our RTI class and subject theme, and it called me up higher, encouraged me to look at this situation from a different point of view.

Something is getting worked on (or getting worked out) in my life.  I just hope I have the humility to receive it!