Lessons in patience

Hello again, for those of you who know me, you'll understand that sometimes I have to be reminded that patience is a virtue. And even more often I have to be reminded that being virtous is something to which I aspire!

I've recently started keeping my camera in my purse. When the rewards for patience appear in a visual form, I try to capture them as reminders. I hope you will enjoy the evidence...

One night just as I was preparing to leave work I received a call. Since I hadn't yet logged off the phone system I was forced to take it. Of course the caller had no way of knowing that it was time for me to leave but I felt a bit put upon...why are they asking me these questions, don't they care that I want to go home? It only took me a few minutes to finish the call and get out of the office. When I left the building I was even more frustrated. It was clearly preparing to rain and I had to stop at the store to pick up cat food (don't EVER run out of cat food, it's dangerous). I decided to stop at a drug store rather than a big chain so that I could get in and out faster. The cashier was slower than I would like and...well, you get the picture. Finally I left and as I was pulling out of the parking lot I noticed

a full-arc rainbow. It was so beautiful that I pulled over and sat in my car to admire it. It occurred to me that if I had left at my usual time I would probably have gone into Walmart instead of Walgreens and I might have missed the rainbow entirely. As I watched it, time and hurrying to get home were completely dismissed. There's something magical about a rainbow, isn't there?

The next morning I went through a drive-through to grab breakfast. The line was long and I sat for several minutes without moving. That morning I felt only compassion for the person working the window. I could imagine how frustrated he or she must be and thought of the cranky customers he/she might be encountering (see there is a good thing about my job - I'm learning an entirely different kind of compassion). After I placed my order and waited to pull around I observed that the shrub by the curb was either being invaded by a foreign weed or had alot of new growth on it...

whichever the case...the contrast struck me as particularly pretty. Again, being forced to wait gave me a chance to observe nature's artwork!

These lessons serve to remind me to be more patient and more observant. They also teach me to be more like a cat... my cats can sit and stare at something for hours without feeling the need to rush on to their next task...

this morning the twins sat at the back door for ages watching the birds.

I hope you are finding moments that make you stop and enjoy your surroundings, beauty that takes your breath away, and lots of great people to share it all with. Thank you for stopping by to visit.