Sunday, February 04, 2007

Patience ...


... is a hard discipline. It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have no control: the arrival of the bus, the end of the rain, the return of a friend, the resolution of a conflict.

Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are.

When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else.

Let's be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.

-Henri J. M. Nouwen

2 comments:

Jason Evans said...

Love that last line...

"Let's be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand."

It seems like so often I am looking elsewhere for the answers, like everything is just around the bend, or "over the rainbow". In the end though... what I was looking for was here the whole time...

I don't get the picture though ?? What is it ??

billie said...

Funny - I was just on here thinking about explaining that photo.

I was typing and looked up earlier to see a bar of light on the purple throw hanging on the back of my desk chair. Something about treasure and hidden and the light, as well as the juxtaposition of the textures captured my fancy.

Unfortunately, this was one of those images that I couldn't get with the camera the same way it filtered into my eye.

Which in some ways makes it all the more appropriate for the quote!

I love that last line too.

billie