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Today's
Meditation:
The
end of the year is a very good time to be thinking about
patience. This is the time when we're thinking about
what we want to accomplish during the year to come, and
when we reflect upon all that we've done in the year now
past. Sometimes there enters into our minds a sense of
hurry as we consider the changes we want to make in our
lives. That's where New Year's Resolutions tend to
come from-- the desire to make immediate changes, effective
on a particular day, and supposedly to last for the rest
of our lives.
Life
doesn't allow us to work that way, though. Anything
that I've ever done that has had lasting value has taken
time. Writers need to work through first and
second drafts. Builders need to build foundations
and lay pipes and electrical lines before they ever can
turn a building into living or working spaces.
Pretty much everything in life follows processes, and when
we accept that fact, we can allow those processes to work
themselves out, turning the finished product into
something special.
As
the New Year comes around, be patient with yourself.
Don't expect to be a completely different person on
January 1 than you were on December 31. Rather, if
there is anything about your life that you feel is worth
making a resolution about, make a resolution to start the
process of change and allow yourself the time to make the
change real and lasting. That doesn't mean to put
off making the change without committing yourself to it--
it's still important that we start the process in
earnest. But just as a seed put into the earth
doesn't immediately become a towering oak or maple,
neither do the changes we start with ourselves immediately
turn us into different people.
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