The 52: Are You Lighter and Happier and More Patient?

Being patient may seem like a trivial thing, especially when we consider gratitude and love and so many other “virtues.” But, make no mistake, a lack of patience results in a lack of peace and wellbeing.  When we are impatient, we have given away the sense of calm and have replaced it with anxiety and “not right-ness.” We are agitated, and who wants that?

Our world, when we engage it too much and take it too seriously, sets us up to be permanently in a state of dis-comfort.  Think of the constancy of the 24/7 news cycle, usually filled with bad news rather than good.  Consider our propensity to compulsively “stay in touch” through texting, emails, and social media.  Everything is happening FAST and, to my way of thinking, this makes patience difficult to attain. 

How about taking some examples from nature?  The great poet, author, and, some would say, mystic, Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote this:

Adopt the pace of nature.  Her secret is patience.

Where I live, in Connecticut, we have had a long winter and spring has taken its time to unfold.  Is nature saying, “Come on, you daffodils, get up and bloom!” or “What’s wrong with you trees?  Can’t you start budding and spreading your leaves out to the sky?”  Instead, we wait.  Being impatient will not make a difference in the course of nature.  There is a lesson to learn here.

In like manner, we may give thought to “time.”  Some things take time to evolve. William Shakespeare, in his great wisdom, wrote:

How poor are they that have not patience.  What wound did ever heal but by degrees?

When my mother passed away some years ago, I learned that some people believed that grieving had a time limit.  Someone said to me, after three months had passed and I was still sad and feeling loss — well, I just missed her — that I should just “get over it.”  but that is not the way healing occurs.  We all have our own way to heal, and we should relax, be patient, and let it unfold in due time.

Being patient is being kind to yourself and all that is around you.  Try it!

I am a little impatient to find out what you think of this.  Just kidding!

With love and namaste, Deanne

For more, go to www.deannemincer.com