Worth your patience
I remembered one morning when I discovered a cocoon in the bark of a tree, just as the butterfly was making a hole in its case and preparing to come out. I waited a while, but it was too long appearing and I was impatient. I bent over it and breathed on it to warm it. I warmed it as quickly as I could and the miracle began to happen before my eyes, faster than life. The case opened, the butterfly started slowly crawling out and I shall never forget my horror when I saw how its wings were folded back and crumpled; the wretched butterfly tried with its whole trembling body to unfold them. Bending over it, I tried to help it with my breath. In vain. It needed to be hatched out patiently and the unfolding of the wings should be a gradual process in the sun. Now it was too late. My breath had forced the butterfly to appear, all crumpled, before its time. It struggled desperately and, a few seconds later, died in the palm of my hand.
That little body is, I do believe, the greatest weight I have on my conscience. For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.
from Zorba the Greek
We live in a world of instant gratification… credit cards, communication across time and space and, of course, McDonalds. I don’t know about you, but I often wonder how I ever survived without the umbilical cord of the internet and mobile keeping me wirelessly connected to my network of friends. Seconds are like hours, days like weeks and months? Months take forever! Everything I want should be here and now. Yet, I’m starting to realise instant gratification has been a slow-working drug on my system. It has lowered my tolerance for life in all its fullness and, if I can’t get what I want when I want it, whatever it is gets tossed into a too hard basket.
How did people survive when letters took weeks, even months to arrive and journeys took their loved ones away for years? How did people survive when all they had was one fixed landline for the whole family and if you missed a call, you missed it. How did people survive when the internet was only available on computers and if you were out and about, you just had to wing it?
Well… they did because they had to.
I wonder what experience of life we miss out on by settling for what can be had here and now? What is worth your patience?
Muchness 