Photo: C. Claflin (Mom Fashion World)

If there is one thing I am trying to conquer lately it is the virtue of Patience.

I am not quite sure whether this was brought to me by being at home, fulfilling my Mommy duties (or trying to) while on summer break, or having too much time to do things I wanted to do yet somehow I get caught up doing “other” unimportant things such as checking my emails and FB constantly.

But I know somehow – Patience is singing to me – and I must learn the song of patience – quickly! (see how I am really struggling with patience as evident with my choice of word: quickly)

In our everyday lives we have the urge to get things done quickly. We want our messages to be read and get a response in a heartbeat, that’s why we have instant messaging or text messaging features in our phones or computers. We want our food to be delivered en pronto – that is why we frown at restaurants who do not follow Dominoe’s guaranteed delivery policy. We want to look younger and better, that ‘s why some people would spend thousands of  money on botox or rhinoplasty. We want our needs to fulfilled right away, in an instant and within seconds. All of these things are telling me a common denominator here, which is the inability for us to wait.

Frankly, we have forgotten how to wait. Gone are the days when we can just sit back and wait for the time to go by. The art of waiting is buried. In fact, it is such an irony why we try to reinforce among young children to be patient and wait for their turn, when we (the adults) do not exactly know what we are talking about. We try to talk to our children something that we are trying to talk ourselves out of and this is embarrassing, if not insulting to ourselves.

I am saying we – because I am also guilty of not being able to sit still and wait, wait, wait. I grow weary while waiting.

I guess this is why I am constantly being blessed with having a four-year old around, to remind of things I should know and must know.

There are a few things I would like to remind myself about patience and maybe, you could benefit from these too:

That,

Patience involves a lot of challenges including waiting. It takes time to wait – sometimes months, weeks even years to feel and see what we want to happen; to have the things we always long for.

Patience tests our limits especially if we are constantly with a young child asking you many whys and hows. In your case, if you are not surrounded with children, try babysitting or adopting a child for a day and you’ll know what patience is all about.

Patience triggers a pattern in our lives. It is your choice to weave in the pattern.

Patience replenishes our souls, then eventually our entire support system IF we know how to practice this virtue.

Oh, this makes me miss the days when I was a member of the Brahma Kumaris (BK)  in Manila. It seems that the virtues of patience during those days were very easy to grapple.

Dadi Janki founder of BK and a yogi herself said,  “If I can stay in my own peace and patience and keep my self-respect, I can help others to do the same.” 

This is what I will remind myself today and for the rest of the week.

Will you do the same?

- Alpha

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Below is a video of Dadi Janki on Patience.