There is an impression of what you think you know, and there is what you actually know. And sitting between you and every other person is a lens — a bias through which you look at them, judge them, evaluate them.
In a conversation today, I got in touch with something deep and personal about my own humility. If you are humble enough, you have the ability to understand the other person the way they are. If you are not, you colour whatever they say with what you already understand. Today I touched the part of myself that is too soon to judge — not humble enough to hold that someone else can have a very different journey, and that there is no need for me to see their journey through my lens.
What matters is seeing their journey through their lens, and acknowledging what they have done.
I don't yet know how to be more humble. But at least I am aware of this now. Too soon to judge is an area I need to work on, and humility is a skill I need to keep developing.
So can I just take a moment to thank the gentleman who taught me such a valuable lesson in a thirty-minute conversation — and to truly acknowledge who that person is, for what they are.
The words we speak carry weight. If you don't have anything good to say, maybe just listen — that's what I'm sitting with today.