To make someone else (seemingly) more comfortable, we do no one any good.

I’m not talking about humility, which I consider a noble quality.

Or a sense of humor about oneself.

I’m talking about shrinking.

Deliberately.

So that someone else’s fear or envy isn’t evoked.

I’m coming to understand that we disown ourselves in those moments.

And that helps no one.

Because it is the light in all of us that calls us to something more, that illuminates what is possible.

Inspires us.

To dig deeper, stretch further, brave bigger.

And if we dim that light, then we’re all left muddling around in the dusk, if not the dark.