Patience a virtue?

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“Patience is a virtue”. You’ve heard that phrase before right? So have I. I think I must have been born a very impatient person. I remember being told a lot as a child to “be patient”. I guess part of that is being an oldest child. You have to wait for the smaller legs and younger siblings in many things. But I remember also having to be patient about so much. It seems like back then everything took SO long. The bus ride to and from school was 50 minutes each way. The nearest grocery store? an hour drive – through a windy canyon and I was very prone to car sickness. (yes I have many memories of throwing up in the car.) I remember sitting in IFA stores for what seemed like hours while dad talked to …..someone. Then, the long drive home… hot, tired and thirsty… and so hungry. I know I must have been so hungry because we would always pass McDonalds and I would just LONG to stop and have a happy meal. (The answer to that was always “no”.) And nowadays I absolutely abhor fast food. So I must have been very very hungry. Everything in life was slow and required so much patience.

I met my husband when were both 17 (actually he hadn’t quite turned 17 yet, he’s 3 months younger than I) . We didn’t marry until we were 21. It was just 4 months short of 5 years that we had known each other before we got married. A veritable eternity for an LDS/BYU couple. My husband went on his mission and I got to wait and go to school. I have to say, I did date a fair amount while he was gone, but no one compared to him and so I waited. patiently.

I waited for my own college graduation, I waited for my husband’s graduation. I have waited through four 9-month pregnancies to have 4 wonderful kids. (If anyone tells you that being pregnant is for the impatient then they are smoking something, or they are a man.)

So among these facts and many many others, I feel like I should have learned patience. I should be like Job as far as patience is concerned and yet, I am not.

I HATE IT. I hate having to be patient! I don’t belive that patience is a virtue one little bit. Why CAN’T things happen right now! Right away. AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! What ever happened to that?!

Right now we are selling our house and the market STINKS to high heaven! And so you have to wish and hope and pray and make the stars align in perfect sequence, and be under the right sign of the zodiac and the chinese calendar year, rub a buddahs tummy and throw salt over your shoulder to get someone to come look at your house and then you hold your breath that it will sell. Now, I am losing patience with it all. Because it took me a long time, and a lot of the insane neighbor ticking us both off, to get my husband to agree to moving . And so now we are OVER ANXIOUS to get the house sold. And so I am tired of waiting. It’s been about 4 weeks now. I want to house to sell.

So I guess I want everyone else’s answers. Why are we asked to be patient? Why can’t things just happen? The world would be so much more efficient if things just happened and we didn’t have to wait all the time.

4 thoughts on “Patience a virtue?”

  1. You get the “most brilliant blog” award this week, my Fav Sister – for making this blog enjoyable, introspective, and humorous. Gold star.

    I was just talking with a friend today about how our perception of eating out has changed so much over the years… so I totally feel you on the McDonalds thing. (my only problem is I haven’t evolved enough to viscerally hate fast food like you)

  2. This blog is very interesting because I think you nailed it. and I never thought of you this way, but you are right, you are very Impatient.

  3. Oh yea, Big A, your first reply to W.E. website and it’s to say I’m impatient! Sure!

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