It’s hard to be patient. Waiting for something you want, enduring something you don’t want.
We try all sorts of tactics to get through. Distraction. Complaining. Trying to push circumstances to fit our needs.
Of all the living creatures on Earth, only we humans seem to struggle with patience. I wonder why that is? What is the fundamental difference between humans and every other living thing that makes us so impatient throughout life?
I look at my cat, and he’s such a teacher of patience. But is it even patience? Maybe the entire concept of patience is only applicable to humans. What other species needs to even consider ‘patience’?
Present moment. It’s all about living in the Now, in the Present, in This Time Right Here. And *that* is the fundamental difference between how humans experience our days and how every other species experiences their days. Or at least how I imagine other species experience their days.
Our human awareness is an amazing gift. Our self-awareness, our creativity, our ingenuity. All amazing facets of humanity.
One of the big downsides though is our concept of time, more specifically how we experience time. We look at the past and the future a great deal as humans. Backwards and forwards. What we’ve done and what we hope to do. Who we’ve been and who we hope to be.
Very rarely do we look at right now. What we are doing. Who we are.
More rarely still do we *live* right now. Staying in the present, allowing all of the experiences of this moment.
When was the last time I really paid attention to right now? Stood in the sun and felt the warmth, and *only* felt the warmth, without thinking about a dozen other things. Ate a bite of cheese and really experienced the taste, and aroma, and texture, savoring each chew. Sat quietly and really listened to all of the sounds, obvious and subtle, familiar and new, that are all around me all the time.
I can say that I have been noticing these things more often than ever before, but the present-moment noticing still only comprises a tiny fraction of my day.
Which is a tragedy. How much of life am I missing? Because if I can’t live right now, then no future moments will be fully lived either. I already know that the vast majority of my past moments were not really experienced.
What do I notice right here, right now? The humming of the traffic on the road close by. The crisp coolness of the breeze wafting through my open sliding glass door. The springy feel of the keys on my laptop, including the ‘s’ that has always been the tinniest bit misaligned and sticks ever so slightly. The pure joyful laugh of my son who is relaxing next to me. The warmth of my toes inside my pink striped socks. The not-unpleasant soreness of my quads from the past three days of working out. The rising and falling of my breath, filling me with life.
Right now is amazing.
Right now is everything.
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Day 3 Prompt: Three Nouns - patience, sun, cheese
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