Impatience
When we start this journey, and begin to become aware of what is actually possible – how alive we can feel, how compassionate we can be – we can become impatient at how slowly things seem to shift. Or perhaps we are anxious to get rid of the person we are now – the one we see as limited, embarrassing, flawed, neurotic, or aggressive – the one we want to leave behind. We struggle trying to make it go faster, to be more diligent – or berate ourselves for not being so.
Can we see that energy as just another thing to observe? Can we feel out what might lie underneath? Perhaps it’s our shame at being human and imperfect; perhaps our habitual pattern of not accepting ourselves; perhaps our desire to gain some control and defense against uncertainty…or…? Can we be with what lies underneath impatience, even momentarily touching the pain that is there?
“Changes in attitude never come easily” the Tibetan monk states in Tibetan Portrait: The Power of Compassion. “[Their] development is a wide, round curve that can be negotiated only slowly – not a sharp corner that can be turned all at once.” From Tricycle, Winter 2004
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is today.
Chinese proverb
Can we see that energy as just another thing to observe? Can we feel out what might lie underneath? Perhaps it’s our shame at being human and imperfect; perhaps our habitual pattern of not accepting ourselves; perhaps our desire to gain some control and defense against uncertainty…or…? Can we be with what lies underneath impatience, even momentarily touching the pain that is there?
“Changes in attitude never come easily” the Tibetan monk states in Tibetan Portrait: The Power of Compassion. “[Their] development is a wide, round curve that can be negotiated only slowly – not a sharp corner that can be turned all at once.” From Tricycle, Winter 2004
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is today.
Chinese proverb
