PATIENCE MONTH: DAY 13: Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can – working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!
Impatience, on the other hand, is a symptom of selfishness. It is a trait of the self-absorbed. It arises from the all-too-prevalent condition called “center of the universe” syndrome, which leads people to believe that the world revolves around them and that all others are just supporting cast in the grand theater of mortality in which only they have the starring role.” ― Dieter F. Uchtdorf
I am sure this will upset some, possibly offend; but it is the truest of the quotes about how I feel when I am in the presence of impatient people…of which I have been one of the worst! I love this quote for its raw honesty about how rude we are when we insist or demand that our needs be met NOW. When I am in the presence of someone who acts in this fashion, be it on the highway, in a restaurant, in line at the grocery store, or wherever it happens, I shrink inside, knowing I was once like this person. It is one of the most singularly unattractive traits expressed by humans, and the anger and pain brought up in its wake are tremendous! The first part of this quote reassures me when I am still finding myself in the throes of a character defect that I would like to believe is gone after 30 years of this work. (sigh!) And that it will all take time and practice to do anything well. I love to learn new things, so challenge myself to find new avenues of expression in life, both physical and artistic. I always have a list of things I would like to try. As an older person, I am probably not going to learn to wind surf, but I did teach myself to crochet last winter and have learned a couple of new gardening techniques since Spring, along with stretching myself to hike further each year than the year before. I work toward building up the strength in my upper body that I lost when my neck was broken, and truly hope to be able to paddle board in the near future, maybe next summer. I want to practice things in order to develop skills, but these all take a lot of patience. Being somewhat (very!) stubborn and persistent, I have been able to learn a lot of things that I did not know how to do when I began these challenges for myself. I am the most surprised person in the world when I realize that I can sit for a couple of hours and work with teeny, tiny seedlings and thin them and replant them in new beds without killing them or losing patience. It is so meditative and healing for me to work in the dirt. Weeding garden beds is another thing that I love to do. I don’t use tools unless the weeds are large. But I can do this for long periods of time because I am in a state of meditation and mindful silence while I do it. This has been a great source of healing for me for many years. I am grateful to have the ability and the opportunity to work with the soil and to be outdoors as I do it. (Living in Paradise, as I do, doesn’t hurt either!) There is very little cold or hot weather here, pretty much a perfect climate all the time; so that makes it nice! We get to practice this principle in all of our affairs. That means with the doctor’s office, with the IRS, with those interesting phone recordings that disconnect you after you have held on for 15 minutes, with traffic while the streets are going through crazy repairs, with impatient people in those situations, with telephone solicitors, with children, with older people, and with ourselves and our progress or lack thereof. Life is a continual process of embracing slow change and slow movement through life. If we watch tai chi, it is important to be mindful of breath and movement in microscopic increments. Fabulous! Learning to slow down my racing mind and re-assess life when my brain tells me NOW! is a tremendous gift…I strive to open it daily!
Dolphin Hug 