patience

We've all no doubt heard the saying "patience is a virtue", however, I've never given any real thought to patience and what it means to really have patience.  Until recently, that is.

I've noticed with my generation, and most definitely with younger generations, that our virtue of patience seems to be fading a little.  We live in a world where most everything is accessible in an instant.  We don't write letters, we email.  We don't talk to fiends about what's new in their lives, we are updated instantly through their Facebook pages.  I'm tweeting right now about writing this blog post.  Everything is instant.

Even the bigger things in life seem to be expected instantly.  Marriage, babies, houses, careers; it's almost like we expect to have everything fall into place the moment we graduate into adulthood.  I'm included in this group.  I feel that because I'm supposed to be a "grown up", that I should have everything in my life in order.  Don't get me wrong, I know that this is unrealistic and that no one actually has their life in order, however, for some reason I still can't help feeling like this every once in a while.  I look at other people my age and I feel that because they have a house, kids, and a great career, I should too.

Recently, I felt as though I had failed at one of the major goals that I had set for myself.  I was pretty upset, to say the least.  What I had really failed at though, was being patient.  I expected my goal to be complete instantaneously.  Never in a million years did I ever consider being patient with life and letting things happen when they're meant to, rather than when I want them to.  As it turns out, I didn't fail, it just happened later than I had wanted, and expected.  *Sigh*  That's life though, always teaching you lessons.

I'm slowly learning to focus on what I have, rather than what I don't.  I have everything that I need to make me happy.  I have my love, my family, and my friends.  Now, I'm working on my patience.