Patience is a Virtue

This is the era of instant gratification, and of a fast paced society.  It seems like everyone is either submitting to advertising and buying, or doing things as if they wanted it done yesterday.  Where has the slow paced, "smell the roses," philosophy gone?  The patience I am writing about tonight is the patience regarding the natural quality of wanting a quick fix, or immediate solution, to a difficult situation including the mending of a relationship.   We seem to have forgotten that solutions to what have taken time to develop, take time to resolve themselves.  If you are a patient person you understand this.   Sometimes waiting for a solution seems like time wasted, however, when it occurs, the months of working through the circumstances with faith and hard work ultimately has made the change possible.  Often lessons in life are learned slowly, requiring patience to see them through.  Patience is a willingness and an ability to suppress restlessness, irritation and annoyance with people, places and things, usually without complaining.  If one is patient they have qualities of calmness and persistence in trying circumstances. To endure a hardship, handle suffering, and to see our way through to acceptance takes patience, courage and determination.  In the 1800's Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem entitled, "A Psalm of Life."  This is the last stanza of that poem:  "Let us then be up and doing, with a heart for any fate; still achieving, still pursuing, learning to labor and to wait."  There is a time to act and a time not to act.  While we are resting, being patient, and not acting, why not sit back and enjoy the journey and take one day at a time.