Several years ago I wrote about being judgmental. Of ourselves, of others, of every single thing you can think about. It was a well-received piece – I got a lot of humorous feedback on it. Last week I was thinking about it quite a bit, which felt very out of the blue. Alas, it was not. Last week was a Saturn in retrograde and Saturn in Virgo week which we all know to be the inner critic, add to the mix that Saturn is always makes us feel like slackers and guess what you get? Now I’m sitting here thinking to myself “ohhhh THAT’S why I was behaving so badly!” then again, I like to look at the stars as a guide, rather than blame them for things. I will get into the blame game shortly – first let’s attack and judge our judgments!

How many times a day do you form an opinion? Each time you form an opinion you are judging, every time you offer advice, post a response, or even classify and process information in your own mind you are judging without realizing it. I am one of the best judges of all, I judge anything and everything. The woman at the market whose buying items she shouldn’t – JUDGED. The media’s opinions and scandals – JUDGED. I enjoy judging so much that I go online and find things to judge! Look at this blog for Pete’s Sakes it’s a judgment!

It isn’t that all judgments are bad ones, or unhealthy either, we cannot escape judging things because it is what makes us human is being able to form opinions and own convictions. Notice how I used the word “own” for convictions. You should own your convictions – your convictions should not own you. When you hold so tightly to an opinion or conviction you might just loose the ability to see the world with a bigger view. Over the last week I’ve experienced first hand what it is like to be judged. I’m human and I’m female so of course it don’t enjoy it, but through the years I’ve learned to manage being judged with some grace and dignity and not get down in the mud with the pigs. However, I found myself doing to these people exactly what they were doing to me. I just considered myself in the right so I thought I was above it all just because I consider myself and opened minded person. Hell I write about spiritual growth don’t I? I am not above anything I’m on the same level as anyone else, high road or not. So what did I do? I got down in the mud with those pigs and got dirty, I enjoy being dirty more than most but I prefer it to be actual mud, not slogging in the pit. Shame on me. And here I am judging myself even as I write this! Do you see the vicious circle we are all amassed in?

Now about blame, or what I like to call, witch hunting in it’ finest form. When things don’t go the way we like, or when we don’t like someone we tend to use them as our scapegoat. When we blame someone or judge someone remember it’s yourself your blaming or judging. We tend to seek out in the world what we worry for within ourselves. Here I am again judging? I can’t escape it!
In closing. The best thing you can do is be kind to yourself, but a word of caution. There is a balance to being Teflon and Blame Free and being over critical, may I judge yet again and say right in the middle is a good place to be?
Enough of this quandary for now, I’m judging myself because I’ve been up since 5:30AM and am still in my jammies, and I am judging that I might need to get my rear in gear and get off my soapbox, and take a shower and was off some of the mud from the last week.