- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 2
-
Sparkle (0)
I have an ancient Palm device - it is about a decade old - that I can no longer manage to get to sync with my current computer. As a result I've been codling it for the past five years to keep my treasured data alive. I bought a plug in charger so I wouldn't have to rely on the cradle and my trusty little companion has lived on healthy and happy.
Until a few days ago that is when, in my impatience, I killed it.
In the midst of my moving it had run out of juice and I remembered to plug it back in. I had forgotten my routine, though. Instead of waiting for it to charge enough for the device to light back up I pushed buttons trying to hurry it back awake. In the pushing of the buttons I reset the device. Back to the last time I synced it. That would be 2003. And so, too busy to wait and allow my little beloved Palm do its thing, I managed to erase everything.
I like to soothe myself by telling me that I subconsciously did this for a reason - shedding the past, forcing myself not to look backward and only forward, yada, yada, yada. Who knows if the stuff I tell myself is nonsense or wisdom - I certainly don't. And I will survive without my data and my solitaire. But I'm sad and kicking myself.
What I do know is true that I could stand to be more patient. This event was, if nothing else, an opportunity to remind me of that. So, OK universe - got it, thanks. Feel free to let me know I've got the patience thing and quit sending me opportunities to practice - kthxbai.
But if wishes were horses and you know the rest. So I don't imagine I'm going to run out of situations in which I could stand to be more patient. Like when learning something new or making things. I loathe long drawn out lessons and repetition. Malcolm Gladwell tells us that it takes 10,000 hours to master something. I start getting antsy at about one.
This is the downside to generally being a quick study. It gives you the hubris to think that after a quick twirl around the Google you can whip out a masterpiece. I'm smart, this looks easy, figure on the 80-20 rule applying and I'm golden, right?
Nope. There's a reason why old sayings have staying power. Such as the one that says practice makes perfect. Well practice also makes good, passable and something that doesn't mark you as a rank newbie.
So after my grumbling subsides, I will say thank you for the reminder once again of the virtue of patience even as I mourn my little lost gadget of games, notes, pictures and data.
Do you have a problem with patience? How do you remind yourself to slow down or wait or practice? Please do share your secrets!
Related Reading:
Michelle Slatalla at The New York Times: Altered by a Sewing Machine
All I wanted to do with my sewing computer was to make a simple set of dish towels.
Actually, all I wanted was to have made them, to stand back and admire the decorative edging, in a contrasting thread color, and then shriek at anyone who came near them with a wet dish: "Get away! Don’t get them dirty!"
All that stood between me and that happiness was process. Resentfully, I washed and dried the fabric. I pinned the cloth. I cut it. I ironed the hemline.
By then, it was Day 4, and I was starting to get angry at the dish towels for not being dish towels yet.
Cameo Garrett: patience
I saw the word patience today and I realized I need more of it.
Claire A. Murray at Claire's Corner: Patience Required During the Holidays
I think we need to practice patience a lot more. It can help us slow ourselves down so we can appreciate others and ourselves even more. And it can help us when someone else isn't able to not do what they're doing that aggravates us so much. Like the woman last night, some things are difficult to control. Yet, she did try to control it and it was partly due to our patience with her. Our patience helped her relax enough to maintain some control over something that tends to control her.
So we gave each other a gift; our patience to her control. And
