What is the one thing that when you need more of it there seems to be less of it to go around? Patience! Sometimes when I think of myself as a reasonably patient person that is when I find myself in simultaneous situations that tell me otherwise. Oh sure, I may be able to forbear many circumstances with a smile on my face but it is the resulting inner turmoil boiling my blood that tells me how far I have to go and proves my inadequate supply of the virtue of patience. Really, I feel like I’m stating the obvious here and thereby removing any constructive need to write about getting more of something I sorely need, as if to hope that in saying it I might stumble upon a magic stepping stone filled with patience and when I touch it I am filled with jolts of calm forbearance in just the right amount, according to the intensity of the moment when it is needed the most. Why can’t patience be like a magic stepping stone? That would be so much easier!
So, when the shedding animals have me walking through tumbleweeds of hair and I want to hire a maid to deal with what I can’t, if I could only rub the magic stone I’d be like Mary Poppins singing about the joys of housework! Or, when the sizzling, southern heat is zapping my energy a touch of the magic patience stone might convince me I’m really beachside at the arctic circle with the penguins and polar bears! I wish! I wish! I wish!
Where can I get more patience since there is no magic stepping stone? Honestly, there is only one thing that has helped me, sometimes after the fact of my impatience rearing its ugly head like a wild horse in a lasso. It is heard so much it may seem trite but it works when I remember to say the words: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” The clincher here is that sometimes I need way MORE wisdom to know the difference between the things I can change and the things I cannot change. And I often find that the courage to change the things I can usually requires me to set better boundaries and assert myself to keep them in place. Only God’s touch can change my heart.
Snippets and Snatches 