Humility modelled by two sheep

I was at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in St David’s Hall last night; and congratulations to the wonderful soprano, Eri Nakamuna, from Japan who won last night’s heat. What I saw in her reminded me of another contributory factor to sound, ongoing recovery from addiction: humility.

Funnily enough, I saw that quality modelled only last week – in Pembrokeshire, of all placed – not by an opera singer this time, incidentally, but by two sheep, would you believe?

During a coastal-walk in St Davids last week, I saw these two sheep came face to face on a narrow ledge of rock high above a deep dungeon. They couldn’t pass each other. What did they do, do you think? Start to fight and gore each other until both fell over the precipice to their deaths in the dungeon below? Not a bit of it. Do you know what they did? One sheep knelt on her forelegs and lay down flat on the floor, while the other sheep silently and carefully stepped over her to safety.

There a lesson in humility for you! And it is that kind of humility that is so essential for recovery from addiction. For humility, you see, is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others, which is what we have to do to get well.

In other words we have to become “givers” instead of “takers”.