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Patience is Always Worth the Practice

I am generally a very patient person. Until it runs out. It's generally little things which accumulate and become a bigger thing in my mind and I feel that I can't stand any more.

It may be the twelfth time the cat jumped on my tender tummy in two days, which was still sore from the previous Saturday's foodpocolypse or stomach flu, I'll never know which it really was. Or the repeated speeders on Highway 26 which pass me by like I'm crawling along the shoulder even though I'm going a touch over the posted speed limit and then cut in front of me, too close, it's raining, it's foggy, it's scary. Or the caller who won't give up and there are 20 redials. Or. Well. Anything which is bothering me at the given moment.

Really, I am patient. But not always.

So a few days ago I found myself being impatient : with a client, with my schedule (and who's fault is it that I have a messy schedule? oh, mine), with me, with my partner.

I realize I needed to re-find my patience. Of course I had to look online to see what I could find about "finding patience" and, yes, there was a list of sites to read through.

This is only one from one of my favorite magazines, Tricycle. I decided that most of us probably have moments of needing to find patience, that I wasn't alone. So why not share.

Finding Patience

How to survive a traffic jam—on the road, or in the heart

by Michele McDonald

When I was a child, I was told many times, “Be patient” or “Patience is a virtue.” I would relate to these words in much the same way I would to the order “Eat your spinach.” To me, “Be patient” meant “Grin and bear it,” or that I should repress my feelings about the disagreeable aspects of life. This is not what is meant by patience from the Buddhist perspective, however.

 Patience, or khanti, is the sixth of the ten perfections, or paramis...

[click on the title above to read the entire article]

Still Waiting

And some days you just say "Thank you Universe, for all that you offer and your silent protections, even when I didn't know I needed it."

See - it is now 3 1/2 hours after my last post. The one where I thought I was about to pick up my car, that I would now be sitting at my friend, Jenny's, dining table and we'd be typing away with dinner and a glass of wine sitting beside us and Ron in the other room or joining us for a snack and then going cycling or watching a movie.

But, no.

It is now 3 1/2 hours later and I'm again waiting on my car. They took care of the brakes and the oil change. Then came the test drive. A noise. An unfamiliar knocking sound. Back into the shop, dismantle, start looking for it. Testing. Listening.

No more details here - except to say that it was a part - the tensioner - that was replaced on my car mid-June. Something that shouldn't have been broken. The type of a part that would go unnoticed by me, with the studded tires and the radio on - I wouldn't hear it. But the mechanic heard it. And I wouldn't hear if it became worse. And when it became worse the belt would slide off and then I'd have a major automotive breakdown.

Thankfully - and here is one perfect example of why I love my mechanics - the mechanic working on my car was willing to stay past closing to repair it if they could locate a part. Which they did. And the place who didn't have it didn't have a delivery driver so someone drove over to get it.

Yes, I'm still waiting for my car.

But it will be safe, won't break down, and will stop when needed. (The mechanic said that my brakes were low enough to need replacement - but they weren't in any danger - they are just Saturn brakes; which are different than the new Chrysler brakes I've been driving for three weeks... which I suspected might be the case, but I also knew the rear brakes (I replaced the front brakes in September) needed replacing.)

So I've canceled the plans to go to Jenny's house to write. The day long writing marathon has disintegrated to hours spent at Les Schwab and the coffee shop. Writing, yes, here, in my blog.

I will be okay with that. I have to be. "Better safe than sorry" feels especially true right now.
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Special Days

Then there are those special days, when I have set aside the entire day for writing, and life hands me something else.

Today is one of those days.

I'm not complaining, really. I will still be able to make it over to Jenny's house for the evening portion of our day of writing.

I tried to take care of the flat studded tire yesterday afternoon. But the Les Schwab in the neighborhood where I was, said the tire couldn't be repaired (I wasn't surprised; one by one the tires are giving out; which they do over time - and I've had them a while) - and they didn't have the replacement tire for my car. The mechanic checked and the Les Schwab I usually go to and they had three of the tires. The problem was that I was 25 minutes from that store and only 5 minutes from where I needed to be in an hour. So my new plan was to go this morning to get the new tire. Quick. Easy. Right?

Problem number one was my own fault. My partner and I stayed up until two o'clock in the morning watching several episodes of "Better Off Ted." It was great fun. A new series we've gotten attached to, thanks to Jenny and her husband. But that meant sleeping later this morning (wah, I know! I didn't work today - which is why I set it aside for writing). Which means my whole day started later than originally planned, since I got up at the time I thought I'd be meeting Jenny to write.

I was hoping to take my car in tomorrow to get the rear brakes done. It was time, they needed to be done (had the front ones done in September), and felt a little "sloppy" - which I realized could be partly due to driving a new rental car for three weeks. But, alas, the reliable, friendly, most excellent place we take our cars (Hawthorne Auto Clinic - awesome people; great service; never a ripoff - always excellent work) is closed tomorrow. So, okay, problem number two surfaced: I needed to take my car in today because the shop could get it done. Yay - it could be taken care of in one day.

Oh, the tire, I remembered after setting it up to take my car in for rear brakes. We're in a somewhat wet time - although it may be letting up for a couple days - with cold temperatures, which means ice potential. And with the driving around I do, I really need to have all four tires studded, rather than three out of four. At least that's my opinion. Yesterday the Les Schwab guy said, "Oh, it's safe." But I think he was thinking in general, since I had a regular size tire on it and not the donut-spare. But I couldn't get the car in for the rear brakes until after the parts arrived - which would be by the time the mechanics were back from lunch - so I had 90 minutes.

A quick and thorough shower and I was on the way to Les Schwab in 20 minutes. Where it took all of those 90 minutes plus a few more to mount and put on the new (now three out of four studs are new) studded tire. Whew.

Then off to Hawthorne Auto, and next door to Common Grounds Coffee House for a latte and tuna sandwich (my favorite tuna sandwich in town: tuna with diced apples, capers, and grilled with swiss cheese). And here I still am. Over two hours later. And that's okay. The coffee is good. Hawthorne Auto is also doing an oil change since it's due in a couple weeks - may as well do it while it's up there.

And I will get to Jenny's at some point to write.

Meanwhile, here I am. Writing my blog entry. I've uploaded to my online storage the copy of the whole memoir in process (the file I thought I'd lost - but discovered I had here on the laptop, thankfully, since my desktop is dead).

A day of writing became a day of car care. But that makes me safer on the road and here on earth to write another day and month and for years to come.

Yes, better to miss the planned writing time and be safe on the road.

Yes.

The lesson of acceptance and patience continues.

from NKJ Live

"Be Patient"

words of wisdom from tricycle's daily dharma today:

When you plant seeds in the garden, you don’t dig them up every day to see if they have sprouted yet. You simply water them and clear away the weeds; you know that the seeds will grow in time. Similarly, just do your daily practice and cultivate a kind heart. Abandon impatience and instead be content creating the causes for goodness; the results will come when they’re ready.”

- Tibetan Buddhist nun and author Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, "Meditator's Toolbox" (Fall 2007)