June 2020
The Art of Practicing Patience
After the Rain Comes the Rainbow
We are being tested like never before. Life at the moment is hard to imagine let alone plan for. As we progress through this historical social experiment, many aspects of our lives are out of our control. Tectonic shifts in our very way of life are putting our goals on pause, and our schedules have vanished or have completely changed in an instant. In the meantime, we are trying to manage our life and time in this new reality.
One positive result of the situation we all have found ourselves in is the potential to harness what we learn. What can learn about ourselves right now? What do we perceive about the world we created for ourselves? What can we now understand about the world around us?
We can become observers and embrace this situation as our teacher. The lesson? Practicing patience.
Some say the passing days are approaching Ground Hog Day status, yet the information about what the future holds continues to evolve. As one observer noted while watching the news, “I feel like I am waiting for the next episode each day.” Time has taken on the confusing quality of passing quickly but feeling endless, one day after the next without the typical markers of holidays and celebrations on the calendar to break up the monotony. Many wonder one a daily basis what day of the week it is.
Most aspects have slowed to a crawl; receiving our mail, figuring out our meals, the once busy schedules dissolving. We suddenly find ourselves cooking more, rushing less, perhaps getting an adequate amount of sleep and taking time to do things like bake (sourdough?) bread and tacking long neglected home projects.
While we continue to cultivate our skills, hobbies and newly minted quarantine routines, we are anxious to know what will happen next. When can we travel? When can we go back to normal? When can we go to the Harvest and have a glass of wine at the bar like we did in the old days?
This is our chance to find comfort in the art of practicing patience. Adopting the mentality to seize the day, to learn a new instrument or language, to start a new company or to change our entire way of life may be a bit aggressive. For now we are in survival mode, and can benefit from looking within. Can we foster the ability to manage our impulsiveness and recognize that we have the gift of time?
Accustomed to the immediacy of life and instant gratification, most have lived without the experience of waiting on lines for food, rationing grocery store items or watching our stores close down all at once. It’s unnerving and unpredictable and some days we just have to hang on. We have outgrown the important childhood lessons of waiting for the reward, taking the time to do something correctly instead of rushing, and trying to be deliberate in our actions. Maybe we bring some of that back into our adult versions of ourselves, accepting this historical gift of time. Can we slow down, and learn patience in place of cultivating anxiety? Maybe we can experience the good things that will come to those that are patient.
