Friday, October 12, 2012

Humility is...

Humility is making space for another's perception.  Carol Gray has a wonderful story about a boy who peed on his teachers lawn after getting in trouble at school.  How dare he retaliate!  Carol took him aside.  Why did you do that? 
"Well," he said,  "it's like the time we went Lama Trecking." 
"Do tell."  Carol Gray leaned in.  The student went on to explain how his whole community went camping and lama trekking.  He refused to pee in the woods because he knew pee belonged in the toilet.  After one night and the following day, it was decided everyone would pack up and go home because it was not healthy to never go to the bathroom.  As they were packing up, he went behind a tree and peed.  Everyone cheered, and they were allowed to continue with their journey.  So here again, when he didn't have acceptance and wanted it, he did what worked last time.

Remember: These sweet folks don't distinguish between context.  They have likely heard or experienced this before, and they are just recreating it at a time when we wouldn't.  Before you get frustrated, consider at what point there perception has held water, because most likely at some point it did.

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