Patience

Being patient. For me, it’s a learned skill. I find that I learn over and over and over again that it pays to be patient. I’m never disappointed when I am and often recognize that I may have shortchanged myself when I have not.

What does it mean to be patient? Is it a reward thing — the longer you wait, the better the prize? or is it a quality thing — waiting yields the opportunity for a more considered result. Whatever it is — things that we wait for often have more value in our lives.

Over the years, I’ve introduced different practices to add a beat or two to what I’m doing that have a whiff of patience. Sitting down when I am eating a snack so that I am aware of what I am eating, reading a book a chapter a day instead of all at once, watching a TV show one episode in a week, gardening from seed instead of from purchased seedlings, growing flowers instead of buying them, baking bread, saving for a purchase instead of using credit … the list goes on.

I think that if we look for patience we may find it simply by the act of looking for it. Patience is a gift that has no beginning or end — I know that if I lose patience one day, I always have the opportunity to gain back that same loss.

Take a deep breath — exhale — and be patient.