learning patience

LIFESTYLE, MINDFULNESS

patience-1

There’s a large hole in the window screen just over our kitchen sink. Inside it, two tiny wrens are building their nest, their secret. All day, they pop in and out of that hole, one pinching a twig in its beak, another grasping an old leaf. Sometimes they pause on the branches of the nearby tree and sing a song. Other times they simply gather new pieces and begin the process over again.

Patience can be such a funny lesson.

As children, we learn to practice patience externally. Wait for dessert. Wait until I’m finished talking. Wait until we get there. As an adult, patience becomes a matter of the heart. Wait for that opportunity. Wait for that person. Wait for that dream. Wait for God. Like the birds in my window, our hands and bodies remain busy with rote while internally we continue waiting for what’s yet to come. As the circumstances change, so does the waiting. Somewhere in this process, I am learning to be patient.

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Comments

  1. This is so beautifully written and exactly the reminder I needed today…thank you.

    1. Author

      The waiting, the living in the in-between, can be so difficult indeed. Thank you, and happy weekend to you, too, Chelsea.

  2. I was just chatting with my best about being an adult. The only goals we could come up with for this year were: accept grace, give grace. Each day of adulthood is full of waiting and in the waiting, there is always grace!

    1. Author

      Yes, so much grace in this process, Kriste! Such a sweet but challenging lesson. (‘gulp’)

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