The Art of Patience

This is a topic that has become so important to me and although I havent ever touched on it other than in a few lines in my other blogs I felt it is important for me to touch on it some more just because I realise how much being patient has changed my outlook on life.

My cousin is here visiting and although the circumstances surrounding his visit is not necessarily positive he is here nonetheless. I bring him up only because at this point in his life his patience and his trust in God I believe is really being tested. For someone who expects results right away and will go as far as getting the job done himself if it means it can get done at his pace which is probably a lot faster than the average person. He has been put in the position where he has no control over the outcome of events and no control over when things have to get done. He has been here for a week and at this point in time he cannot give you a definite time and date when he will return. Its driving him up the wall. Its testing his patience and quite frankly he is at the verge of cracking.

Of course for me its easy to sit back and tell him to be patient and just wait for things to get done but not being in his shoes I cant relate to what he is going through. However thats where he is wrong. I can relate. Being the kind of person who has no patience for anything. I have no patience for stupidity, i have no patience for time, I have no patience with just anyone who feels they can do things when they want if they want. living with my brother who pretty much does things when he wants can drive me up the wall but my expriences this year and last year has taught me something and that something is patient.

This past year, i have had to patiently wait for someone to notice my resume and give me a call for an interview, I have had to patiently wait for classmates to get their portion of the school project done when i had my portion done a long time ago, i have had to practise patience when I had to get somewhere at a certain time and the subways and the busses havent been on time to get me to where I need to go. i have paitiently had to wait in a cold and dark apartment while my apartment manager had to get their shit together and figure out what the problem was to turn the heat and electricity back on. I have had to wait for my brother to get home from a night out because he left his key at home and couldnt open the door.

All this patience has really taught me a lot about myself. it has taught me that I am not the center of the world and that I cant always expect people to do things my way on my time. It has taught me to be a little bit more reliant on people and most importantly ask for help when I really thought I could handle it all. I believe the most important thing it has taught me is, stressing over situations you sometimes have no control over it, will not speed up the process any faster or slow it down. It just means you have to try your best to keep positive and hope and pray that things happen on schedule. It has also taught me not to give up. It keeps me grounded and keeps me moving forward even when I lose hope because I know that if I am patient and I wait on the lord, things will happen at the right time.

Patience is something that a lot of us find it hard to practise. The world we live in tells us that if you wait you get left behind and to some extent that is true. However being hit hard with a recession, having to patiently wait to find a job so you can get your life back on track has really taught people that you really need to be patient. As frustrating as waiting can be, being patient definitely has its perks. Maybe this is God's way of giving us a chance to sit back, relax and enjoy this ride.