Notes for the Week The Third Sunday in Lent March 15 2020

Dear friends,

To be humble is to shine in the most unexpected places with no expectation of being noticed at the moment of one’s magnificence. At some level, known only to our self, we all like to be noticed, and if we are, we’d like to think it is for the joy and contentment we have brought to others, rather than for who or what we are. For when one achieves with humble presence, others cannot help stopping to show respect for it. Some might even fall in love with it, or at the very least, never forget its power to quietly enchant.

Who says that any member of the corps de ballet couldn’t be a prima ballerina if he or she wanted to be? Yet, all manner of situations get in the way of dreams…..relationships, world circumstances, money, our own selves and our foibles. Sometimes, we pine after visons that never enter reality and never will. We wonder about our worth when we see someone else attain them. We watch upward mobility from the wings, wondering what it must be like to attain, to reach the pinnacle, to win. Then we turn back to the task at hand, hoping to be the best we can be in the corps. When we can turn to it with grace, we have achieved the greatness we seek.

Humility, in the face of achievement, is arresting in its simple beauty and powerful in its quiet presence. It bows before bluster, and bluster is bowed before it. It seeks to be the best that it can be, without expectation of applause. It aims only to please when its beauty is discovered. It lives to evoke pleasure and in doing so, it teaches in its most humble way, what is actually important in the world. It grows where it finds itself, and receives its place with gratitude, and sets to work bringing forth all that God intends it to be; gracious, giving, and breathtakingly humble, when it succeeds. It puts braggadocio to shame. It silently proclaims the futility and stupidity of human anger, resentment, judgment, and impatience all to way toward terror in the streets and war. It offers hope to the hopeless, encouragement to the simply shy and more than a little peace amid the crowded chaos.

If God wanted every one of us to be the principal dancers through life, we’d be bumping into each other all over the world stage. How wise God is to give us the opportunity to humbly bloom where we are planted, so that we can thrill and be thrilled simply by being who we are.

We journey together,

Mother Esme+