THURSDAY THOUGHTS - Patience Please!

A few weeks ago I was driving home from work. While waiting for a red light to change, I noticed a piece of paper taped in the back window of the car in front of me that had a sign in hand written letters which read, “Learning to drive a stick shift….PATIENCE PLEASE!” I laughed almost out loud as I remembered my father taking me in to the fields west of Springville where there wasn’t much traffic, to master the same skill.

My thoughts then turned to the endless situations which require patience. Take for instance the messes of the preschool years when children seem to spill more than they eat, or the yearly fiasco of tangled Christmas lights. How about potty training, or entering the kitchen to find a dozen eggs cracked on the floor because my son loved the way they sounded as he dropped them?

It seems to me that there is a patience progression of sorts. Spilled milk and potty training give way to and prepare us for whatever challenges await us in the future. These are different for each of us and there are enough maladies for all of us to share. There is Cancer and its many faces; depression in its various forms; divorce and the displacement it causes on many levels; the challenge of caring for aging parents; or the grief of burying those we love to name just a few. In our family I have one daughter in law who is awaiting the birth of their first child through a hot and uncomfortable summer, while my other daughter in law just suffered her third miscarriage. Both of these young women are learning the principle of patience in a different way.

Charles Dickens, the famous author, once said, “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else.“ Situations which require patience provide more than ample opportunities for us to practice kindness. A wise man once wrote, “Kindness is the golden charm by which society is bound together.”  I think patience and kindness go hand in hand and while being patient and kind to others is important, it is highly beneficial when we learn to be patient and kind to ourselves as well.

In our fast paced lifestyle, patience and kindness are at a premium. If you don’t believe it just watch how those around you react to someone cutting them off in traffic, or losing the last parking space in the lot to someone else. I recently saw the manager of a theater ask four people to leave because they were fighting over a seat. And how many of you have seen people fighting over Christmas gifts as the last shopping days slip away? “’Tis the Season” right?  Perhaps “PATIENCE PLEASE” should be posted in windows everywhere. It might help us bind ourselves together with the golden charm of kindness as we progress on our life’s path.

Kathy Christensen
Survivor
Member, Lifting Hearts