The art of HTFU
Patience is a virtue”
Proverbs
“Patience: A minor form of despair disguised as a virtue.”
Ambrose Bierce
I like to think that I have virtues. I readily admit, patience is not one of them. It’s all well and good to be a person of action but, not being God, so many things are outside my power and timing. Patience is more necessity than virtue. Oh, to be omnipotent and have no need for patience! Love, I understand. Faith, I understand. Trust, hope, courage, generosity … all these things I grasp and have in some measure but how do I be patient?
I can line up at the supermarket. I can make popcorn the old fashioned way. I can wait for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The despair is minor when the desire is mild. So, patience must be my level of tolerance for not having something I desperately want. Since I can’t magic patience out of thin air, I’ll have to work on the ‘not having’ and ‘desperately wanting’ parts of the equation.
‘Not having’ lends itself to action. What can I do to increase my chances of getting what I want? Unfortunately, if my hands are tied or my actions fruitless, it’s easy to fall into despair. The only thing left in my control is the ‘desperately wanting’ part.
To have patience is to HTFU?
Really, my world shouldn’t hang in the balance of having or not having a thing I want. That makes me more like a 3 year old child falling in a limp, wailing floor-heap because Mummy won’t buy a Caramello Koala… waaaay too much importance on a single desire. Even if my real desire is much loftier than chocolate, what a waste of time, energy and emotions on something I don’t have!
There are far too many other things in this world to enjoy. Let’s see if I can distract myself with some of them.
Muchness 