Patience: a virtue, indeed!

Is it just ME, or do you, too, sometimes find yourself  growing impatient when others are not on your schedule or timeline or honoring the same priorities?

PLEASE!  Tell me I am not the only one!

I recently responded to what is a very important set of questions after taking several weeks deciding how – and when – I wanted to respond.   You know I had to consider all options, all versions, all the ins and outs: my due diligence had to go full circle!

So, I put together my responses, all of my explanations, offered a few alternative options, added the niceties and sent it off.  Again, it took me about 3 weeks to push ‘send’.

That brings me to today:  day 3!  Still no response to the response!  The nerve!!!

Of course, I am hoping the party on the other side is approaching this project with the same integrity, commitment  - and due diligence – as I.  So, why should I grant just 1 day per week it took me to do the same?

Oh, my dear readers:  PATIENCE, patience………..

Well, in my family, I don’t think we went through the complete patience cycle when virtues were being distributed.  Without a doubt, we easily make up for it in other ways, but patience doesn’t always come easy to all of us!!!

We tend to be decisive – most of us.  We know what we like, we know what we will accept, We know what we are prepared to deliver – and we will never not show up; we always get the job done!  

But patience?  Not so much a lot!!  (But, at least I am honest about it: that counts for something; right?)

On that thought, something very interesting crossed my desk today and I want to share the gist of it with you…

Did you know (I did not), that when planted, bamboo remains below ground and invisible for 5 years? Once it appears above ground level, it has been seen to grow as high as 90 feet – 90 feet – in about 6 weeks. That is nothing short of incredible!

Now, it might seem that the bamboo is impatient – it cannot wait to grow; it does so at all but miraculous speed.

Not so!

The bamboo is patient.  It plants itself firmly, it grown roots, deep and wide so its eventual height can be supported.  That will sustain it  - and if you know anything else about bamboo it is resilient and hard to get rid of.

Ah, the plant a seed story!

So, we think, we ponder, we do our due diligence.  We plan, we take action – THEN, we want instant gratification!

Failure to plan, not planning well enough, moving too quickly are all ways of not allowing our thoughts, our dreams, our goals, our visions to become fixed in themselves so that growth is possible and sustainable.

I am suddenly thinking about children who want nothing more than to grow up and be, well, ‘grown-up’.   How many ‘grown-ups’ do you know who would love to go back in time and recapture the joy of youth?   My dad used to say that youth was wasted on the young.  What he meant was that we were not wise enough to appreciate it at the time and that we even wished time – the only thing we know we will run out of – away. Ah, the wisdom of the ages!

We are told that good things come to those who wait!  Waiting, though, is not enough. 

What the mighty bamboo tells us is that if we work our plan our plan will work.  (We typically hear that in reverse!) 

Be patient with others; give them time to catch your spirit, your energy.  Give them room to appreciate your thoughts, your visions:  BE PATIENT.

Above all, be patient with those you love – especially yourself (yes, you must love yourself!). As all good parents do for their children, give yourself roots to grow – then, grow your wings and fly.  SOAR!!!

So, IS it just me, or do you too, feel today was a great day:  we both learned something new.

Let your dreams take root!

The Longest Journey!

Is it just ME, or do you, too, ponder over big thoughts, such as this?

Just this morning, I heard a very learned man state that the longest journey is one foot; about the distance between your brain and your heart!!

WOW, I thought, I love that!  It makes sense!  It’s so true!!

Simple!  Profound!

Sometimes, the (seemingly) simplest things in life end up being the most profound and that’s how I feel about what was preached to me to be the longest journey.

Did you ever hear someone say something that seemed to have left the brain and the mouth on a total disconnect?  I guess that’s because the brain went to the mouth instead of to the heart, where it could be held,  if but for a moment – before it becomes the spoken word, the words sometimes unable to be taken back – or at least forgotten.

So,  let’s THINK about it…let’s use our brains.  Let’s ponder the worth, the value of something…anything…everything in our lives.  Let’s  have a cerebral experience.  Let’s weigh pros and cons, then let’s send it to our hearts where we ponder from a different tilt.  Let’s access the impact of what we think and how we feel about it.  Let’s consider how it might affect others.  Then, let’s re-access.

There are many thoughts that are in and out of our minds regularly; almost too fast to be captured and remembered.  Maybe that’s a good thing, after all.  Maybe those thoughts are not meant to take up space in our hearts, not meant to be shared with others, not intended to leave indelible marks on other hearts.

Now, let’s consider the things we hold in our heart that are weighing us down, that we are carrying around for too long; thoughts yet to be shared, expressed or spoken to another.  There’s a reason for that, as well.

I think these are the things we hold most dear; the things we need to express once they begin to take up more room than they deserve.  Hearts must always be ready for new thing, you know.

So, what’s in and on your heart?  What have you been thinking about forever and still not taken any action on?  What’s holding you back?  Why do you fear the first step of that ‘longest journey’?

Quite often it’s just that: fear!  Fear, of course, disguises itself in many different ways, but most often, it is fear. 

I’ll  bet your notion of fear comes with a heaping amount of negativity.  If we are fearful, it must be a bad thing.

Not so, I put out to you!

Fear can be the race of the heart when your eyes set upon a new love, a newborn child.  Fear can be the overwhelming anticipation of the last step before the first next big step toward something wonderful – something you are still not able to wrap both head and heart around!  It is a journey, after all!!!

Thoughts are in your mind for a reason; actually, you place them there: consciously or otherwise.  They are the culmination of many other processes I am not able to adequately explain; trust me, won’t you?  They are there to serve you, to grow you, to create value for you and others.  Listen to them!

The thoughts you hold to be the most valuable are those that take that journey to your heart where they can take on a new life, a wonderful life!  You start to feel your thoughts, they have color and movement.  Feel them!

Please shed your fears and continue our journey.  There may be rough roads, distractions, missed turns…but your journey will take you where you THINK you need to be and where you FEEL the best about yourself and your life.

So IS it just me, or have you, too, been trying to quiet your thoughts and your feelings?  Are you ready to take the first step?  Are you ready to overcome your fear – one step at a time.  Go ahead!  Take the longest journey between brain and heart.  The endless miles that follow will seem quite easy after that!

Enjoy your journey!

Bouncing Back…

Is it just ME, or are you, too blessed to know – or to have known – women with what can only be described as astounding resilience?

I’d hazard to guess that anyone who knows but a handful of women knows at least one resilient one; I think it’s part of the gender description!

Resilience isn’t always easy, though I dare say, becoming more and more necessary all the time. 

Life tests women, it challenges women, it sometimes dares women.  In that challenge is the need to be able to get over the “stuff” that slowly wears us down and to  survive the moments that hit as if a ton of bricks:  fast and hard.

“No-one gets out alive”, my Dad used to say.  It’s all the in between events, experiences, disappointments and heartaches that being present in truly living, not just being alive,  from which we learn our biggest lessons and form muscle and personal constitution to keep going.

Again, not always easy!

On the scorecard of life, you will not be measured by how many times you fell, but by the times you got up.

On the scorecard of life, you will not be measured by how many times you failed, but by the number of times you tried.

That, dear sisters,  is what it means to be resilient.  I like that work; I feel it’s as pretty a word as its meaning is strong.  It’s a shiny word and it’s a smart word: it’s the perfect word to describe a true woman of leadership in today’s world.

So, IS it just me, or do you, too applaud all the resilient women you are blessed to know, to know about, to have shared time and space with or to have learned from?

Get up just one more time than you fall down!