Whenever I hear these words, I am immediately annoyed. If someone is thanking me for my patience, I have probably been anything but. How dare “they” assume I have been patient, or anything but irritated at “them” for having made me wait. And besides, what choice did I have about being patient? I was probably waiting on the phone to talk to someone about a service or technical problem of some sort. The kind of thing that must get done, no matter how long you have to wait. Or I was at the airport waiting to board a flight that I had already paid for, going to places that I either need to go or want to go. How can I not be patient? I may have been at a doctor’s office waiting to be seen for a problem that is keeping me up at night or otherwise making me miserable. Should I just walk away with the thought that my eye that has been swollen shut for three days is not a real problem; that eventually it will just go away? Why should I be patient with companies that don’t employ enough personnel to handle calls, or airlines that overbook flights, or doctors that overschedule? I have no choice! Or do I?
In thinking about patience, I realize that when it comes to the bigger things in life, I am incredibly patient. I am patient with my family, who have loved me, disappointed me, cared for me, ignored me, celebrated me and criticized me all of my life. I have cultivated patience for them. I was patient with the long process of going to school for what seemed like 100 years, to get the degrees and credentials that would enable me to do what I wanted with my career. I have been patient with my decades-long meditation practice, battling my mind and ego so that I could have brief moments of stillness and peace both inside my meditation room and outside of it. I have been patient with my clients who sometimes really “show up” to sessions and do the work, and sometimes not; who can sometimes share the truth with me and with themselv
