Some sounds
use words. I hear
the language of leaves.
It is deep and order
soft and real.
~ Hannah Emerson, lines from "Language of Leaves," in THE KISSING OF THE KISSING: POEMS
The word "humility" (also "human") is derived from the Latin "humus," meaning "the soil." Perhaps this is not simply because it entails stooping and returning to earthly origins, but also because, as we are rooted in this earth of everyday life, we find in it all the vitality and fertility unnoticed by people who mostly tramp on across the surface, drawn by distant landscapes.