Patience is never about time

As a kid, I was reprimanded more than once for not being patient. When I look back on my life, I can see the many times I was not patient. But what exactly does that mean, to not be patient? To be impatient?

I’ve now come to understand that the bud of patience has 2 folds – faith and attending to the present. Let me explain what I mean.

Faith is that inner sense of assurance, of abiding in the knowledge that Life is always on my side, is always supporting me through its natural flow. All my true desires (not cravings) are impulses of Love which, when I give Love permission, will guide me to their inevitable manifestation.

In the meantime, secure in this faith, in this abiding, I am free and willing to attend to whatever is happening right here and now, and I do so in an earnest and complete way. By that I mean, I don’t regard what I’m doing right now as a time-filler, as something I’m preoccupying myself with till the real magic happens, till my true desires manifest. That would be a total dishonouring of my life, for as I’ve often said, Life doesn’t happen from highlight to highlight, from big event to big event. Oh no. Life happens moment to moment, each moment as significant as any other.

The sometimes inconveniently insightful psychologist and Jesuit priest, Anthony de Mello, said:

So, when we give our sincere attention to whatever is at hand, intentionally doing the best we can, while having faith that Life/Love’s impulses within us i.e. out true desires, are destined for manifestation, that’s when we are patient.

Many of us measure patience in terms of how long we are prepared to wait . Patience is never about time. Rather, it is about attitude which is expressed as faith and our willingness to earnestly attend to whatever is present here and now.

You see, you might think you’ve been patiently waiting for 5 years or 6 months or a whole day for something to manifest (eg a job, a partner, the tradesman to arrive). But have you been attending earnestly and lovingly to the events of each day with faith? Or have you been feeling frustrated? Losing faith by constantly questioning Life and dabbling in doubt? Dwelling in disappointment? Or being resentful?

If you have faith, there is nothing to ‘wait for’. There is simply the arrival of that which you had intented. And if you aren’t attending to the here and now, then you’re likely to let life pass you by as John Lennon observed:

Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans

So, are you patient?

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