Grateful Heart - Day 9

I realized that I didn't do Day 8...maybe I'll go back and fill it in later...but for now, day 9. Today I am grateful for patience.

When I was younger, patience was DEFINITELY NOT my strong suit! I barreled through my life acting on my passion and whim. I didn't learn yet that patience can be an ally and a friend and save me a lot of stress, strife and tears.

Over the years, through maturing, through learning, and through experience I have purposely cultivated patience as a virtue. In exchange, I offend people less, I often make carefully considered responses to people who might be trying to engage me in arguments, and I appreciate more the things I have gained through patience.

Patience can come in handy in many situations. When I wanted to go to Ireland as a bucket list item, it seemed an impossible task. The old me would have either sacrificed money and time we didn't have just to make it happen or haphazardly decided that it was too expensive and written it off, never to be realized. Instead, I patiently researched the various ways I could cut costs and then decided how much money we might need to make it happen and began to save. This process took probably at least 3 years (which is a long time to wait when you're eager to go) of saving, planning, calculating, arranging, and orchestrating the trip. The result was beyond my dreams! And we came back with $300 or so that didn't get spent to put away for the next adventure.

Patience has also helped me avoid confrontations that are unwinnable. Instead of just reacting, I am able to step outside the situation, see it for what it is (unwinnable), and remove myself from it instead of engaging in what would only cause more hurt feelings and have to productive outcome.

Patience has made me a better parent. If I ask one of my children to change a behavior, the old me would have instantly become angry the first time they "forgot" or otherwise didn't conform. Instead, the patient me realizes that change comes with effort and that time is required to form new habits. Patience enables me to look beyond the immediate, be able to remind them what needs to happen again, and wait for the change to take place. In this way, we have less angst in the house overall.

I work consciously every day to remember to be patient and to greet difficult situations with patience. I'm not always successful, no one is perfect, but overall I have to say that my life is much more even-keeled because of it.