Do You Have the Patience to Be Patient?

It's said that being patient is a virtue. Is it really or is it just a good idea?

I'm not sure that virtue has anything to do with being patient, but everyone around me seems to be striving to attain this trait. It's supposed to be healthy, lengthen your lifespan, make you an easier person to be around, and help your heart. So I figured I should try to be virtuous... and patient.

I've tried and I've tried to be patient over the years, but have never quite succeeded. When I was young, I wanted to be old. When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be in high school. When I was in high school, I wanted to hurry up, get married, and be an adult. Finally, I wanted my babies to hurry up and grow out of each phase and into the next... until they did. You get the idea.

Are we, any of us, ever happy with the status quo? Are you happy right where you are right now? I think patience has a lot to do with happiness. Sadly for the majority of us, we have so many responsibilities every day of our lives that we're just trying to make it through... through the day so we can get home to relax or on to other responsibilities like sports and dinners. Then we get through the week just in time to take care of our household, gardening, shopping, etc, so that we can... you guessed it... get through the weekend and have everything done.

Where does that leave us? We are all so busy every minute of every day that we resent it when something (or someone) should dare to get in our way and slow us down. If we're in line waiting to order and somebody takes too long, we get impatient and think to ourselves "how do they not know what they want by now". If we're in line at the bank or the post office and there are more than one or two people in front of us, it puts us behind schedule and we get anxious (and impatient). I think we all know how we react when we get to the grocery store and find that there are two lines open and about 25 people waiting to check out.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of being impatient. I'm tired of letting normal, everyday activities upset me so much that I'm an impatient, unhappy person. I'm trying very hard to remember that every single one of us, those in line in front of me, the person walking so slowly that I have to wait, the driver in front of me going slower than molasses, are not doing it to hurt me or make me angry. They are simply other human beings living out their life and doing the best job that they can... just like me. We all have things to do, we all have schedules, and we all have responsibilities. Maybe one of those responsibilities should be to have more understanding for others and to be more patient... with each other.

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