True Humility is also a Prayer. True Humility has no expectation or need for center stage. It accepts the full responsibility for waking up and staying awake. It accepts the truth of reality and relinquishes the need to resist it.

My friend Cliff found Humility after he saw Eckhart Tolle on the Oprah Winfrey Show. He bought his book, A New Earth, and read every word. Two months later, he stopped for coffee on his way to work, stepped off a curb, and fell on the pavement face first. As he fell, he heard his hip crack on the way down. A day later, the doctors performed a successful hip replacement, and Cliff was in for a long rehabilitation period. Cliff's attitude impressed all of his friends. He was jolly, telling jokes and instructing all of his visitors to read, A New Earth.

Most of my friends had seen, "The New Earth Webinar” on Oprah's show, yet we all got stalled on the last segment, Chapter 10, which we heard was two-hours long. Then, seeing Cliff do so well facing his challenge, and attributing this to Tolle's book, I decided to watch it. At the same time, the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attack was commemorated privately and publicly here in the U. S. and throughout the world. Tolle talks about his vision of the New Earth, which simply is bringing consciousness to every moment, becoming aware that we are aware, becoming still within this awareness.

This expanded perspective brings us to the realization that we are far greater than the body or the physical dimension we all seem to agree on. The rhythms of life include the ebb and flow, the expansion and contraction, the inhaling and exhaling, the heart in motion and at rest – if only for a mille-second.

We sleep, then we awaken, whether remembering our dreams or not. The seasonal changes give rise to a rebirth in springtime, dissolution of life in the autumn and winter, and a great abundance and plenty in the summer months, especially here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In this cyclic-rhythm, there comes a time in the outgoing of life, in the youth of our lives, when we return to the Source as we age.

In this phase of our earthly existence, we may come to the realization that we are not separate from other humans, animals, rocks, wind or water. As we experience the death of loved ones, or perhaps a near-death experience in our own lives, an awakening often occurs.

As terrible as the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were, they served to temporarily wake-up America. For a period of several weeks, we were all bonded in a unified state of love and compassion.

In New York, people spoke of an aura of safety, where people were not afraid to speak to one another on the streets. People poured forth their stories and communicated their inner-most feelings with perfect strangers. This is a beautiful example of a shared awakening. No one wanted this sense of unity to end.

It went underground when the wars began.