I'm on a mailing list for this, without quite remembering how I got there. The content is interesting enough that I don't mind. Today's essay is one I want to share.
Anthroposophy on the Net – Aspects – The Twelve Holy Nights
December 27, 2006 – The Third Holy Night
HUMILITY
Tonight's quality is often misunderstood. It is humility. Each of us is made up of a myriad of strengths and weaknesses. Each strength and each weakness creates a self-perception and a self-judgment. And these perceptions and judgments tend to distort our sense of our self-worth and self-esteem. Our thinking, feeling and willing get entangled with our strengths and weaknesses. Often our soul life ends up in a mess. Humility is the quality that begins to clear the mess.
We create the mess to hide the weaknesses. Humility allows us to honor our weaknesses. Through humility, we can be generous to ourselves and shine a good light into the dark corners of our individual humanity. We see the totality of our being and see ourselves as a whole far greater than the sum of our parts.
Humility allows us to stand strong in our own earthly (humus) being. It teaches us about our particular temperamental constitution. (The Greeks referred to the temperaments as the four humours).
Humility leads us to the core of our humanity. Sadly, so many of us think humility leads us to hate our humanity. It is only the lack of humility that makes us vulnerable to humiliation.
When something is planted in rich humus, it grows! The gift of humility is the capacity to strive towards our ideals. Our so-called weaknesses contain the greatest potential for self-esteem and inner growth.
Can you lovingly and with blessed humility make a list of your “weaknesses?” What What aspects of you are hidden with shame, guilt or neglect? Where in your complexity are you “less than?” Can you write down ten weaknesses?
Counting tonight, we have ten Holy Nights remaining. If each night in the”good light” of your own self-compassion, you innocently “wonder at” one weakness from your list you will begin to see new directions and possibilities open up. Humility is the way to both self-acceptance and self-development.
Have a meditative conversation with your weakness. Ask it questions. What are you teaching me? Why are you here? What would happen to you if I embraced your presence in my life.
I want to say, “Trust me!” but it is really about trusting yourself.
I hardly know where to start. I have a *lot* of weaknesses. There's one in particular, though…
In trying to write this up, I kept changing what I was writing about, until I realized that they're part of the same thing, just differently phrased.
So I ask this weakness, “What are you teaching me?”, and it says:
Life is short, and the sun marches on in the sky.
I ask this weakness, “Why are you here?”, and it says:
Because you have something other people need, and if you go your own way and get immersed in your own projects, you're being selfish and using your gifts only for yourself.
I ask this weakness, “What would happen to you if I embraced your presence in my life?”, and it says:
You would learn to delegate, to make bonds with people, to be a true catalyst. You would learn to share.
People have to risk becoming gods or assholes or the best combination of everything in-between that they can. You can inspire people.
I say, “To what end? To what end do I inspire people to live the life that I can't, to have their children, to grow their food, to love their families, to let themselves enjoy peace and prosperity and joy that I can't?”
And the weakness says, “It's the hand you were dealt. Better to light a candle, even with yourself as the fuel, than to mourn your losses and feed the darkness.”
Relentless Inquiry 
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