We live in a fast paced, instant gratification world. If we are really honest with ourselves we can see that we carry a whole host of expectations into each moment of our day. We expect perfect service 100% of the time, we expect to receive what we want, when we want it. We expect others to believe what we believe and to do things the way we would do them. If traffic doesn't move fast enough, our children aren't ready in time, or the dog just not cooperating, we take it as a direct offense to our sense of entitlement to things going our way and have little patience for it to be otherwise.
If it is not logical or the way we've always done it, we often have very little patience to even consider another's view or idea. We rush through each moment trying to get to the next because we believe that the next moment will be better. We believe we will be happier in the next moment. We believe everything will be perfect in the next moment; we will be thinner, richer, have more, and be more. Therefore, there is no time to waste.
Not much patience in that belief system.
What if we took a moment...
How about this moment, to stop.
Completely.
Stop moving, stop worrying, stop grasping for the next moment.....and breathe.
Watch the breath, notice that in this moment we are fully supported without doing anything. And in this moment notice a flower or a tree, the sky, the sun or the rain.
Notice that the tree is not impatient waiting for the seed, nor the bud impatient to become a flower. The fullest expression is already recognized within the bud and the seed. Just as our hopes, dreams and unfolding, our own fullest expression, is already present within.
When we stop, take a breath, let go of the mind, we find a stillness, a patience, that is already perfectly present. It sees through Divine eyes that everything is unfolding in Divine timing. This patience is not of the mind, but beyond it. It is felt deep within and is powerful as it carries deep wisdom and understanding. It moves from a place of responding instead of reacting; from power not force; from love not fear.
When we touch this patience within ourselves and breathe it into our awareness we can move more freely within the world; more peacefully. We can extend this patience to all others; our partner, a clerk in the store, the traffic, our children. And we see that all is Divinely unfolding even when we are not getting what we want. Maybe, that is the greatest gift of the moment, to bring us back to our breath and the peace that is within.
May we each be willing to live patiently by bringing a greater awareness into each moment; by seeing beyond the surface of the situation and to know the Peace that is present, which holds even our greatest struggles in its loving arms.