From my Sketchbook: Defining Patience

INSPIRED BY…

PATIENCE
The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

In many areas of life, I’ve considered patience to be an overrated virtue. Perhaps it is the nano-second world I live in. Or the gang of proverbial energizer bunnies who pepper my gene pool and gifted me with the ancestral belief that patience has no value if you want to achieve your goals in life.

Yet there have been times, some of them seemingly never-ending periods of time, where I needed to dig deep into that bucket of patience that is inherent within each of us. And much to my own amazement, I found it really wasn’t that difficult to do. Most likely because I was doing it on the behalf of a family member. And in my book, family trumps overrated virtues any day.

Yet in my professional life as an art director, my clients tell me that I am always patient with them. And especially in a crisis, I am always calm. Who knew? Well, actually I did. Because doing for my family and my clients puts the concept of embracing my inner patience on a completely different level.

Yet once again I am finding myself having to dip into that big ol’ bucket of patience. And what has surprised me the most is that the default on my bucket seems to be “auto-fill”. Who knew? Certainly not me. But this time I am tapping into that bucket for myself. Which puts me on a completely different and higher level. An exciting, can’t-wait-to-see-what’s-around-the-next-corner, let-out-of-school-for-permanent-summer-vacation kind of level.

And I have come to the realization that my auto-fill-bucket-default is dependent on my belief system. Do I believe there are great things around the corner for me? Do I believe that unconditionally? Am I willing to stay the course and ride out any storm, calmly and with purpose, to get to the other side and discover my rainbow?

And my answer is yes. I can, calmly and with purpose, ride out any storm. Because I do believe, unconditionally, I will be gifted with my rainbow.

So no matter your belief system: fate, a pre-ordained destiny, a higher power or universal purpose, or just plain winging it through life…as long as you believe unconditionally, your patience bucket will always be on auto-fill.

And with the ability to endure, without any angst or channeling of your inner brat, you will be gifted with whatever you are seeking. I am living breathing proof-positive of that.

Falls under the category of “Resetting the Definition of Patience”.

~sharon