Please Hold. Life Will Be With You Momentarily.

Waiting.... I don't like it. Especially when I'm waiting for news about someone or some big thing that could change my life, I mean drastically alter my path.

And right now, that is what I am doing - waiting. When exactly is "Life" going to get back to me on this? Sigh!

How very ironic that yesterday my employer asked me if I would agree to be "the voice" of our association and record a demo greeting on our new phone system. So there I was uttering those exact words into a recording device that I've come to loathe.... "Please continue to hold. Someone will be with you momentarily."

I suppose I do have a pleasant, southern-sounding voice (most of the time). And I suppose that no one else was willing to do the grunt work as I always become stuck doing.

"Consider it a marketing aspect of your job," I was told. Consider it another piece of bread you're throwing at me in this rat race and I must have the word "SUCKER" printed across my forehead, I thought. But okay, I'm a teamplayer, remember?

Patience is a virtue that must not be in my blood. I don't ever remember a time in my life that I happily waited for something to happen. My nine months of pregnancy was probably the most patient I've ever been, seeing as how I didn't rip Vivian out from my stomach or loins any sooner than when the doctor gave the okay for an induction.

How can I work on being a more patient person? Is there a class or workshop for that?

I really shouldn't complain. My waiting around is nothing compared to a mother whose son is overseas fighting a war and she hasn't heard from him in months. Or the waiting that families do while their child is in surgery. Or that a cancer patient does after multiple rounds of chemotherapy.

How can I fill my time and my thoughts on meaningful things? How can I learn to accept life in the present when I sit and wonder about what may be later today or tomorrow or whenever the hell we find out the news we seek?

I'm singing Guns N' Roses trying to channel some inner self-control....little patience, mm yeah, mm yeah, need a little patience, yeah (Dang, I wish I could whistle like Axl Rose~!)

Will I be "Waiting for Godot" who will never arrive? Yet I sit here on this bench hoping he will.

My lack of patience is probably my greatest flaw. I admit this. Now I just need to figure out what I can do about it.

I looked up quotations on patience for possible inspiration. Here are a few ones I like:

"A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains."
-A Dutch Proverb

(My thoughts: Well no wonder I'm so screwed up mentally!!)


"Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind."
-Leonardo da Vinci, Italian engineer, painter, & sculptor (1452 - 1519)

(My thoughts: I'm not sure I understand the full meaning of this one but it sure sounds good, doesn't it? Go Leo! You're so wise!)


"You must first have a lot of patience to learn to have patience."
-Stanislaw J. Lec (1909 - 1966), "Unkempt Thoughts"

(My thoughts: Hey, Stanley! Isn't what you're saying an oxymoron?)


Oh well, I guess these folks don't have it figured out either. That makes me feel a little better anyway. Here's hoping that I gain an ounce of patience today.

In the mean time, I'll sip my cup of coffee and enjoy a chocolate waffle. Perhaps if I take a little more time to savor the bites and breathe in the aroma, the answers will come to me. After all, most problems can be solved with good food and drink.