Practicing Impatience

April 23

We treat patience as a virtue, and with good reason. A quick trip to a coffee shop, a moment in traffic, we don’t have to go very far to find the primordial force of impatience welling up and see those around us who have given in, honking their horns to let the universe they are displeased with the flow and pattern of time.

The thing about patience is that it’s absence is obvious, a kind of childishness that creeps into adults around us at their lowest. We’re painfully aware of it in others and ourselves.

In a more abstract sense, patience is an active trust in the future—the belief that the universe is going to deal us a better hand at some point. We’ll gladly wait it out, because time is on our side.

But by that metaphor, there comes a time when patience is no longe the answer. We’re waiting for the appropriate moment. Once the appropriate moment has arrived, we have to set patience aside and act quickly.

It’s why it may be worth practicing a little more impatience—because while everyone around you will gladly let you know you’re not being patient enough, no one will show up and tell you you’ve been patient for too long.

Is it time?

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