Waiting to Have Patience

My internal reaction to many events in my life, large and small, important and less than important, is:

Hurry up, dammit. I want/need/deserve this NOW.

Patience is something that I strive to work on every day, because every day, something happens which gives me pause to slow myself down.

My paternal grandfather used to say: Patience is a virtue and virtue is a grace, and it all comes together to make a pretty face. He would say this all sing-song, and even as an eight year old, it would drive me absolutely bananas. I hated it! And now at 25, I think maybe I hated the rhyme so much because I knew even then, that I was not patient.

I’ve always wanted things- people, situations, experiences, opportunities-to materialize right when I have had the thought that I want them.

That girl I met? I want her now.

That house we’re trying to buy? I want it now.

That vacation or trip I want to take? I want it now.

That book I want to read, that training I want to attend, that party I want to be at? I want to do it NOW.

How do you cultivate patience? What do you do to keep yourself present with the people and experiences you have already?

Byron Katie would tell me: “You know how you know when you have what you want or need? You have it. You know how you know when you don’t need or want something? You don’t have it.”

patience

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