Patience

Hold your horses. Keep your shirt on. Just a  minute. Each phrase is directed at patience. I have never had a horse, never tried to take off my shirt, and a minute can seem like forever. I can be very patient with a client, with my students, but with myself, not so much. I often think that patience is a virtue that does not come naturally to anyone.

My college students want it now. I think that is a problem for our whole society, we want what we want when we want it! I am part of society, so I have the illness as well, though I would like to think I have learned how to temper it. I met a very patient man just yesterday. Martin is a Norwegian fellow who is bicycling across America with, are you ready for this, his 8 children. No, not joking the oldest child is 17, the youngest 18 months. Mom is back in Norway, studying to be a Methodist minister at the seminary. They left New York last September, have been up through Canada, down through Michigan, Missouri, Tennessee, all the way to East Texas.

Martin said they ride about 25 or 30 miles per day. Four miles at a time! They ride 4 miles, stop and relax, then four more, then relax. When I talked to him about it, Martin said, “why hurry?” “It is all about family and being together.”  Now, think of this, ride an hour, relax with the kids, ride an hour, relax with the kids…….so you ride about six hours per day, then camp out with your kids. From September to April (when they will be in Los Angeles). Martin is a patient man. Or is he? He is a relaxed man, who happens to be very well educated. And wise, I think. He knows what matters.

The monks at Gethsemani would love and understand Martin. They know patience. They know how to savor every moment. They know the fruit of the Spirit, as does Martin and his children. His 17 year old daughter is the most contented 17 year old I have ever met. A quiet smile, very bright and a glow that just comes out of her. I have much to learn from this little family. I should know better. But, I am a prisoner of my culture, though I am trying to escape to a “more excellent way”. As I write this, the grandson is swinging peacefully in his swing, his granna is moving about the house both so content. I have much to learn indeed.

Joseph, so long ago, got himself sold into slavery because of his huge ego. He learned over time that ego won’t get you where you want to go. So he was a slave, a prisoner, and then second in command of all of Egypt. He had to learn to wait. But there is more to that, waiting in and of itself is not a virtue. Here is the secret, I think. Learning to wait, makes you aware, makes you pay attention. That is when the Eternal can do the best work. You see the Eternal is at all times at work in Creation. It is only when we slow down, keep our shirts on and pay attention that we see all that is going on. I think I will keep my shirt on, reign in my horses, relax and see all that the Eternal is doing in the world around me.

 

TMM

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