25. Self-Mastery

Mountain


Flow

Artwork by:

Meg Vellejos-McCoy at innerlifecreations.com.

Day 319 of 2021 and Day 2175 of her Daily Painting Practice.

With which virtues do you express self-mastery?

A definition of ‘virtue’ is a particular moral excellence in conformity to a standard of right.

When I challenge myself to do the next right thing, it requires I identify what comes next AND that it be “right.” It’s a two-part inquiry.

Often, my first thought is: “The next thing is what I want.” The second part is the virtue discernment: “Is what I want beneficial to everyone concerned? Or does what I want only benefit me?” Moral excellence demands we consider not just our own desires but what benefits everyone, including ourselves.

A certain caveat to this two-part inquiry is that if a decision is truly, certainly, and honorably good and right for one person, then over the long run, it will benefit everyone.

One day, in court, opposing counsel argued that my client was “inconsistent in her parenting.” What I wanted to do was interrupt and object and I could have contrived an objection. Instead, I breathed deeply and exercised the virtue of patience, for I had a well-formed legal argument with exhibits as evidence that her former partner was sabotaging her consistency. My presentation of the full arc of argument, made possible by my delayed gratification, benefited my client, her children, and me, as her advocate.

I am Mountain, supported by the Flow of all creation and destruction. I aspire to self-mastery.