go, where we are trying to

the yoga instructor notices how many of us are struggling with some of the more advanced poses. and so he reminds us to be patient--that through patience, we will arrive where we are trying to go.

there is so much wisdom in what the instructor is saying. i find myself spending the rest of class rediscovering that word--patience--as i roll through one vinyasa after another.

after class, i still have so much to say to myself. so i head to a nearby coffee shop, find a stool by the window, and begin to write. pen and paper.

i wrote for maybe an hour. three or four pages filled with all sorts of ah-ha's, minor epiphanies, simple truths.

i had hoped to type up these notes this evening, and so began editing the piece while riding the bus across the bridge today.

and then...(wait for it)...i left the notepad on the bus.

so what follows is not a Take Two, an entry where i recreate the original.

no.

instead, i am just going to offer a very brief summary--and pray that somehow my call to the transit's Lost + Found will prove fruitful.

so here goes: an uber-compressed version of my recently created (and even more recently lost) treatise.
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patience is such an undervalued tool. i think we often fail to grasp the full power of it because we are so aware of our finite lives and thus feel we must do as much as possible in the small amount of time we are alive. patience, if anything, seems like a luxury we can't afford.

and yet, the more patience i cultivate in both my world and mind, the more my life seems limitless, infinite. i think patience allows us to enter and exist fully in the present, the life that is happening at this moment.

ahh, those rare moments when i stop chasing some external goal, and instead find myself enjoying the inner trophy of being wide awake in the Now. in those moments, i am struck by how much of life there is all around me--and how little of it i actually need to feel utterly happy, at peace, free.

the inverse is also true. the more impatient i am (the more i demand things to bloom according to my own timelines--forcing my schedule and belief system on things), the less of life there seems to love, and the more frustration i feel throughout the day.

patience--letting things exist on their own terms--is ultimately about trust. a faith in the idea that when we do our best, we finally get to let go. because when we do our best, we will (eventually) get everything we need.