The Gathering: Patience and Change

Patience is a virtue; to endure the difficult moments without acting out with anger, irritation, complaints, losing out tempers. Sometimes it’s very easy and in those times maybe it’s not the test, but in the times when it is not so easy.

Patience is required of us in every area of our lives, sometimes it’s just easier than others. For me, I sometimes find that I’m actually better at this with the big things. I feel like I’m able to pull the strength from somewhere when I really need it, but rather it is in the smaller moments that I find frustration. The everyday things that make me go – don’t I have enough to handle this with all of the other things I’m handling pretty well.

It’s required in every thing we do. Standing in line for our coffee, waiting in traffic to get to our jobs, waiting to hear back from people. It is required in our marriages and relationships, with our children, our friends and our families, and with our selves. It is required for the time we have on this earth, for our souls. As we work towards our goals, as we wait for things to come to fruition and as we face changes.

Sometimes we don’t have control over the sudden changes in our lives. My husband’s work schedule recently got changed around and it really changes the dynamics in our household. He’s home late, so we’re up later and trying to balance family time together, time as husband and wife, work, homework, housework, work-work, dentist appointments, doctor’s visits, well, it can feel as though it’s all out of whack some moments no matter how hard we try. Hell, some days without this change it seemed hard. But I’m determined that there is a lesson to be learned here, an opportunity for growth. I can become overwhelmed and frustrated because things aren’t as smooth as they were before or I can match it. Luckily, this arrangement isn’t permanent; it very well may end right when we really begin to get another groove going, as things so often do. In the meantime I’ve got to rework my schedule and just find a way to make it all work. None of us are perfect, but we can try to make the best of things. If we lose out on sleep so that we can sleep more soundly down the line; that’s worth it. It would be easier to right off certain things and blame the circumstances, but I think that if I work hard enough and stay determined enough, it will work out all right and if it doesn’t, well, there will just be another lesson to learn.

Being mindful enough to choose patience when we can is hard work but it is worth it every time. So I am trying to remember that this week and I hope you all will too. Be kind to your self.

#TheGathering