Judges are on the Bench, not in the Game
“This eye looks with love. This eye looks with judgment. Free me; take the sight out of this eye….”* My alarm sang to me at 4:30 this morning. Strange thing is, I didn’t set that song as my alarm. I don’t know how it happened, but it did.
And it WAS a message. From God, from the universe, from my own, subconscious self, whatever. It’s my word for the day.
You see, I fight for freedom. I have fought for it all of my life, against interferences both real, and imagined. I was literally born into the modern human trafficking world. I was owned. And I was freed, never to bear the weight of that bondage. So I hold my freedom very dearly, and I have no tolerance for excuses and other, self-limiting behaviors.
And yet, in my freedom, I have not been free. It’s the people who have the most ability to be free, the most ability to become anything they put their minds to, who seem to be the least free to actually step out and do it.
Why is this?
Judgment.
When we judge others, we judge ourselves. Any restrictions we put on others’, fall upon our own shoulders, as well. “Judge not, lest you be judged.”
I have felt the weight of others’ judgment lately. I have felt it keenly. And, in my misguided attempts to shake it off, I have judged, in turn. In so doing, I have ensnared myself in a prison of my own design.
You see, to measure yourself against the judgment of others is a trap. It is also a trap to measure yourself in OPPOSITION to the judgment of others. They are one and the same. When you judge others, you are limiting yourself to always being “better” than them.
Pedestals are small, and precarious. Let’s not place anyone on one. Especially ourselves. Be real. Be free. Judge not.
*This Eye, by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians
