Humility

Humility is needed. The polar opposite of the pride that is the ego’s primary characteristic. Scripture calls that pride vanity. We would do well to call it hubris.

Our ego has become so powerful that nothing short of hubris gives it proper description. We are more than proud of our accomplishments. In Shakespeare’s words we have let our “vaulting ambition…o’er-leap itself.” (Macbeth. Act. I. Scene VII)

Richard Rohr points out the three demons we must face in ourselves: success, rightness, power. All three can be distilled into hubris.

And what does God require of us? “To do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8b)

Humility is not what we have been taught it is. It is not servile. It is not self-demeaning. Genuine humility has achieved a power greater than any hubris. A power that knows itself to be perfectly what it is intended to be–and is satisfied. A power that has no need to boastfully strut about. A power that can bring about good—something hubris cannot.

Ann Glover O’Dell
29 July 2014

My Solitude

Delicious. Absolutely delicious. Better even than chocolate (although chocolate regularly contributes). That is the best I can do to describe my solitude. As much as I enjoy all sorts of social and cultural events and interacting with all sorts of people, coming home is always dessert.

I live surrounded by the things I have loved for so long. Things my mother and grandmother acquired and enjoyed. Things my great-grandmother produced as she pieced the beautiful quilts that eventually would find their way to me to be treasured in a way she hardly could have imagined.

My little house is filled with collections—pitchers, strawberries, hearts, eggs, angels, scrapbooks, my uncle’s watercolors, and folders upon folders filled and overflowing with ideas.

In the midst of all that is precious and could be distracting, my writing desk beckons me to let a special magic overcome me, as all I need do is simply sit and the ideas begin to flow. I never know what is going to materialize—whether poem, essay, meditation. But I know before anything comes into consciousness that it will delight and that the writing of it will energize me to the extent that afterwards I will honor it by tackling some procrastinated domestic chore.

My experience convinces me that life is intended to be joyful and that each of us can find our center, allow it to feed our spirits, and live out of that which is more comforting, more exciting, and more powerful even than our egos.

Ann Glover O’Dell

WEB PAGE CONTENTS

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HUMPTY DUMPTY BLOG

This is the last post in the series of “Hatching Humpty Dumpty.” The posts need to be read chronologically, beginning with the first, dated March 2014. The posts follow the action and themes in my book, Humpty Dumpty Hatched: Transformation for Everyone. I hope they have sparked your interest in reading my book, which you will find here on my website and which may be downloaded free of charge.

BOOK

Humpty Dumpty Hatched: Transformation for Everyone is the story of a personal miracle that can be accessed by anyone. The book contains insights into personality and wholeness as well.

JOURNAL

The new series of postings featured here is named “Journal Notes: Inscaping.” It will contain essays on a variety of subjects. These journal notes will be added to each week. They will also be available in the page (left-hand side) entitled, “Journal.”

MEDITATIONS

These meditations address addiction: the helpless despair of those whose lives are out of control. The themes encourage the engagement of the Inner Wisdom residing within each of us and its ability to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. (A meditation will be added weekly to this page.)

POETRY

“Midwifing the Soul” is a collection of poetry that has come to me as I sit in silence with my writer friends. I give full credit to the Spirit for inspiring me. All I have done is work somewhat with meter and rhythm and vocabulary. (I plan to add a poem each week to this page.)