Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Be Humble, Stay Humble...

It's hard in the state of conflict, or in the midst of fighting an uphill battle with no end in sight, to be humble. Over the past few weeks, I've been sharing about our funding challenges. It's frustrating beyond belief at times. In all this, yet, I feel pressed to ensure that my character is intact. One of those essential aspects of anybody's character during any crisis is humility.

As Robin Sharma shares that "the art of winning lives in never feeling that we've won." While we wage a war of justice, ensuring that schools like ours exist to provide equitable access to education for our First Nation students across Canada, we must constantly set aside ourselves for the good of others. We are called to a place of selflessness that our contemporary society seems to know little about with so much emphasis on "me" and little on "us." I'm having to examine my motives daily as to my role in this battle. This crisis that First Nations face across Canada requires the collective "we" to pull us together. It's not a time for one person to rise to the forefront for all attention to be focussed on him or her. It's about remaining humble in spirit and thinking about how this will affect others if things don't change. A position of inaction is often about self-protection and worried about what might happen to me if I get involved. A position of action puts others best interest before ourselves no matter the consequence. This is hard, because instinctively human nature reacts to protect ourselves from harm. And the truth of the matter is that if the government policies of the day are implemented cutting funding everywhere to our First Nations, many are going to suffer, both directly and indirectly.

What are we to do? As Sharma says, "Stay humble." But I say, in order to Stay Humble, we must first "Be Humble." This is not about being humiliated, but exercising an attitude of selflessness and humility that thinks about our needs less and puts others needs ahead of ourselves. It is an essential virtue for the good of all people. During this time of funding struggles, we have been so honoured to see the outpouring of support from people all around the country. Many chiefs I have spoken to have offered their support to help us with this battle by signing BCR's of support, to which I say "Thank You." Many people have shared our blogs on Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, to which I say "Thank You." We have had numerous letters of support written by our students, to which I say, "Thank you."

We are deeply grateful, and humbled by your support and help in getting the message out there. There are days when we feel like one more obstacle put in front of us makes us feel we should just throw in the towel. But your support buoys us and we say, "Thank you."



I was reminded recently of the importance of practicing perseverance, when I watched the following TedTalk by Boyd Varty. He reflects on the struggle of Nelson Mandela in South Africa and the great depth of character possessed. Now, I'm no Mandela, but if I could possess even a measure of his passion and zeal for justice, truth, commitment all rooted in humility, I should be so grateful. I've included the video in this blog for your viewing pleasure. But in all this, let's be humble, and stay humble. In the end, it will be worth it.

Thanks for listening.

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