It's one of those days today.
Fuzzy brained and feeling covered with a big blanket of velour, I know I'm awake yet half of me is asleep somewhere in the cosmos..
What is in retrograde today?
No matter how well I've worded or worked, whatever is done winds up having to be redone.
A red sock finds it's way into a load of carefully sorted whites; buttons pushed to answer phones disconnect instead; in the best of intentions of recycling, checks wind up in the shredder with the envelopes in which they came and books with intriguing titles are begun which seem to have a familiar ring as you delve into the second or third chapter only to find yourself realizing, "My God. I've read this one already!"
Yes. Today was one of those days.
An email sent to me by my friend, Carol, made me think enough to want to share with others.
So, I cut, pasted, eliminated the naggy part at the bottom which usually attempts to guilt you into sending to '10 of your best friends' and threatens with some kind of negative reprisals from the Gods of Bad Luck if you don't. Then I added a personal note, a quote of my own and, after making sure it was all in order, sent with Light & Love.
Minutes later, I get a reply from my friend, Ben, thanking me for the lovely thoughts and discreetly pointing out a small error in my own quote. "I think you meant to type it differently... not sure," writes he ever so lovingly giving me a heads up. He knows I'll go crazy over the mistake if left uncorrected.
I'm a stickler for spelling and live in fear of looking like an uneducated schmuck for 'putting i before e after c,' leaving out any of what should be double letters or writing 'there' when i mean 'their.'
You get the picture.
Perfectionism is one of my challenges in many things and the rules in English class still ring in my head.
Yet, as diligent as I may try to be, electronic components of energy zip in and zap my best efforts, sending out half words crunched together, missing first letters of words and a nice word picture of me as either lunatic, space cadet or unintelligent.
"A writer?" I can hear people whisper in my head full of critiques. "Is she delusional?"
'Tsk tsks' slip across the ethernet and I cringe thinking, "I can't believe I just sent that out! Yeah, great. Nice to be quoted as the poet who can't spell...or spellcheck!"
I can't believe that my perfectly worded AND SPELLED missive wound up with a glaring word crunch- in red no less-size 20 type!
What is left to do?
Of course. Out goes the follow up e in which I edit the quote, spell the offending word correctly and fix the wordbotch glitch.
And then thank AOL once again for an oops which gave me yet another opportunity to grow in humility, let go of perfection and practice of patience with the wonderfully flawed process of being human...in an electronic age.
Showing posts with label patience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label patience. Show all posts
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
"A Little Goes A Long Way"
By Florence Ondré
This attribute; this commodity; this vaporous substance; ever seeming in short supply could go for big bucks and have a street value higher than pain pills.
This illusive energy flits away like a firefly in July. Now you see it; now you don’t.
Just think of the daily commute; hours in traffic and, no matter how much you know that this is a process and it’s going to take some time to get to your destination, you’re tired; worn thin from the day. You’re looking forward to getting in your domicile, closing the door on the world, taking a nice long shower or tub, eating and dropping into bed. All without other people and their energies crashing in on you like uninvited party guests.
Ahhh, would that all your kindness, compassion and understanding could stay present all the time to keep your basest. grubby, forgetfulness of niceties at bay.
You are, after all really a very nice person. You know it; others have said so and doggone it, people like you.
Having stated the obvious, you might just begin to discern a smidge of foam at the side of your mouth and notice that your jaws are clenched tighter than a noose around a prisoner’s neck at the lynching. Your shoulders have pinned your ears up about an inch and a half at the very least and there are already itsy bitsy trenches between your eyebrows, which are closer than you remember from the morning mirror look-see.
It’s official. You are at the very least…cranky; verging on an slippy slidey path to agitated and irate.
Reasonable has left the building and willingly follows you like a growing shadow that Peter Pan could not possibly fit to your shoe no matter how much fairy dust Tinker Bell sprinkles on.
You’re exhausted and overloaded with whatever giant economy (ha) size big gulp of fear you bought on sale today.
The mere thought of having to wait cheerfully while the world goes to hell in its horrible little handbasket -or ,at the very least, wait without shrieking or seizing someone by the throat as they slow up traffic, make dumb mistakes, cut you off, walk in front of you like you didn’t exist or have the right to take up room on the pavement or give you the finger or a less than kind word is beyond ability.
You, dear soul, have reached your wits end.
And wasn’t that a shorter trip than you ever dreamed it would be?
You have run out of that preciousness called patience.
What could you have been thinking? How did you lose it and where did it disapear along the way?
It’s a stunner, isn’t it, when you think back on the train wrecks which follow the slip this energy gives you?
Even a kind word can send you over the edge into a tantrum.
“What could that dimwit been thinking when she said, ‘Have a nice day’? Did she forget that payroll was short, we didn’t get lunch and now it’s traffic snarls to match my mood in the stretched to over 3 hour commute home! What is she? Some kind of vicious hobgoblin? Nice day, my ass!”
This about one of your favorite colleagues, friends or neighbors.
Well, you might just want to take in a breath, release those shoulders from their perch as fleshy earirngs and remember that everything is gonna take as long as it takes and there’s a divine timing in flow that is bringing things about in ways better than you can imagine.
Might as well, put on some music, notice one good thing, feel the release and a smoother heart rate as you settle into change and, once again, practice patience.
Even one small moment when you have patience counts and when you have it for yourself, you can have it with others and situations over which you probably have minute (if any) control.
Then you could just think on how you didn’t throttle anyone today-even if you thought about it.
That’s gratitude following patience… and self restraint.
As Martin Luther King Jr said, “I may not get there with you……”
Just for today, it’s possible I’m right behind you, flying my crankyflag high until the process brings me that little bit which goes a long way home.
This attribute; this commodity; this vaporous substance; ever seeming in short supply could go for big bucks and have a street value higher than pain pills.
This illusive energy flits away like a firefly in July. Now you see it; now you don’t.
Just think of the daily commute; hours in traffic and, no matter how much you know that this is a process and it’s going to take some time to get to your destination, you’re tired; worn thin from the day. You’re looking forward to getting in your domicile, closing the door on the world, taking a nice long shower or tub, eating and dropping into bed. All without other people and their energies crashing in on you like uninvited party guests.
Ahhh, would that all your kindness, compassion and understanding could stay present all the time to keep your basest. grubby, forgetfulness of niceties at bay.
You are, after all really a very nice person. You know it; others have said so and doggone it, people like you.
Having stated the obvious, you might just begin to discern a smidge of foam at the side of your mouth and notice that your jaws are clenched tighter than a noose around a prisoner’s neck at the lynching. Your shoulders have pinned your ears up about an inch and a half at the very least and there are already itsy bitsy trenches between your eyebrows, which are closer than you remember from the morning mirror look-see.
It’s official. You are at the very least…cranky; verging on an slippy slidey path to agitated and irate.
Reasonable has left the building and willingly follows you like a growing shadow that Peter Pan could not possibly fit to your shoe no matter how much fairy dust Tinker Bell sprinkles on.
You’re exhausted and overloaded with whatever giant economy (ha) size big gulp of fear you bought on sale today.
The mere thought of having to wait cheerfully while the world goes to hell in its horrible little handbasket -or ,at the very least, wait without shrieking or seizing someone by the throat as they slow up traffic, make dumb mistakes, cut you off, walk in front of you like you didn’t exist or have the right to take up room on the pavement or give you the finger or a less than kind word is beyond ability.
You, dear soul, have reached your wits end.
And wasn’t that a shorter trip than you ever dreamed it would be?
You have run out of that preciousness called patience.
What could you have been thinking? How did you lose it and where did it disapear along the way?
It’s a stunner, isn’t it, when you think back on the train wrecks which follow the slip this energy gives you?
Even a kind word can send you over the edge into a tantrum.
“What could that dimwit been thinking when she said, ‘Have a nice day’? Did she forget that payroll was short, we didn’t get lunch and now it’s traffic snarls to match my mood in the stretched to over 3 hour commute home! What is she? Some kind of vicious hobgoblin? Nice day, my ass!”
This about one of your favorite colleagues, friends or neighbors.
Well, you might just want to take in a breath, release those shoulders from their perch as fleshy earirngs and remember that everything is gonna take as long as it takes and there’s a divine timing in flow that is bringing things about in ways better than you can imagine.
Might as well, put on some music, notice one good thing, feel the release and a smoother heart rate as you settle into change and, once again, practice patience.
Even one small moment when you have patience counts and when you have it for yourself, you can have it with others and situations over which you probably have minute (if any) control.
Then you could just think on how you didn’t throttle anyone today-even if you thought about it.
That’s gratitude following patience… and self restraint.
As Martin Luther King Jr said, “I may not get there with you……”
Just for today, it’s possible I’m right behind you, flying my crankyflag high until the process brings me that little bit which goes a long way home.
Monday, October 30, 2006
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