Friday, June 22, 2007

Mama Says Om - Humble

"Be humble for you are made of dung. Be noble for you are made of stars."
(Serbian proverb)

"We are the light, released over and over again."
Martha Glessing (Windcloud)

Humility and nobility rest easily together in this old Serbian proverb which knits things up so nicely for me. The words provide me with a poignant reminder that we are all (in essence) recycled creatures who are spun over and over again out of the essential matter of the cosmos in which we find ourselves. We occasionally lose ourselves here too, and I am never very sure whether I am in the process of finding myself or losing myself, but that is quite all right.

The aphorism reminds me that I have a profound causal relationship with everything on this dear little blue planet on which I reside and everything around it too: the exuberant foliage in the hedgerow this morning and the fragrant earth in which it grows, the contents of the recycling bin in the garden behind the little blue house in the village, and the clumps of dark friable dung annointing the sheep pastures and woodlands through which I have been wandering this summer. It means that when I look up at the moon and stars on a fine balmy night in June, I should remember that I am part of that too.

"I am all that," I say, and It's all good. The humble dung which graces the depths of my terracotta cauldron of herbs in the garden grants nourishment and confers an earthy blessing on the plant which is joined by another blessing - the blessing of light from above. We are creatures both humble and noble, forged from earth and the light too. Need I say that am still working on the humble part of the equation? I need all the poignant reminders I can get.

Written for the humble and truly noble mamas at Mama Says Om.

1 comment:

Visual-Voice said...

This is such a lovely post ~ thank you.