Patience and Savoring
We live in a go-go-go culture where it seems celebrated to be constantly moving forward, striving to push ahead, competing to get on top. It is a good quality to be constantly in motion with life and work and those who have a packed calendar are revered. These people are good at multi-tasking and they get stuff done because they strive for results, they want the next challenge, they crave the drive. This ride called life is a rollercoaster for them and they want to do it all.
I have always admired people like this because I see a lot of qualities that I wish I had. I am not competitive and I do have drive but I try to find a balance between moving ahead and enjoying where I am. There are some people who do a beautiful job of always getting ahead and seem to be in a new position due to their tenacity all the time. But me, I am not sure that I could execute that in such a graceful manner. When I do find myself falling into this behavior groove, I get excited and look forward to what is to come. In my mind’s eye, I can see my hands always reaching forward, trying to grasp the next task as quickly as I can so that I can hold on for a short period, then reach back out again.
Right now, I have noticed that I am getting impatient with reaching out and still not being able to grab onto something. It is equally difficult when you put yourself out there, but still have space between your finger tips and your goal. That can be a bitter experience, but needs to be looked at in actuality as an opportunity to grow and develop. In this time of reaching, I am trying to appreciate the lesson of patience. The patience to be content where I am for now and savoring the time period that I find myself in currently. There are other aspects of my life that are going so quickly, so I should relish the fact that my whole life is not moving at warp-speed.
Having patience gives us a good excuse to slow down and appreciate how far we have come so that we don’t get too discouraged by the fact that we might not be exactly where we want to be right now. If we were constantly moving and doing we would never be able to relax and take in the present moment to remember it for later. Life is so short and precious to be fast forwarding. There is nothing wrong with pause. The patience in pause will give you the strength to know that someday you will reach the next goal, but for now you are here, and here is great too.
