The Elixir of Patience

Patience is one of the first things we are taught as we come into the world. It is also one of the first things we vehemently deny and ignore.

Who can blame us?

It literally demands every single virtue from you.

Every. Single. One. Whether you're aware of it or not!

And even then you still might not get what you want.

Despite that, I not only proudly vouch for its efficacy, I encourage us to employ it even more if we find that we aren't getting the results we want!

We've managed to reduce Patience to a synonym for waiting and I think that's downright disrespectful.

My aim is to restore reverence for this innate, infinite Virtue with this piece.

Virtue is defined as Moral Excellence. You will find many examples of them across many cultures with areas of overlap and stark opposition.

That's not what I'm here to discuss and I sincerely hope that's not why you're here. If that is why you're here, we aren't going there, but I think there's something valuable you can take away from this!

Patience has a home in every culture, context, and ecosystem on this lovely planet. It is the lifeblood of every manifestation we can possibly perceive.

One of my favorite aspects of Patience is that it depends entirely on our willingness to invoke it.

It is defined as: the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

The capacity you say?!

To which you might think...

"Well, well, well...that must mean there's a maximum because capacity is defined as the maximum amount that something can contain. Therefore, it is not and cannot be infinite!"

If we lived in a world of static properties I'd have to agree and cease writing this piece!

But we don't do we?

No. We don't. In fact, the only static property of Life as we know it is existence itself, while it lasts. ALL manifested phenomena are constantly undergoing transformation and flux. All of it!

Your body. Your mind. Your tastes. Your senses. Society. Weather. Matter. The expansion of the Universe...Allllllat.

As manifestations of the Universe, we also expand, externally and internally. Internally speaking, that expansion would include our CAPACITY for the trials of Life and the virtues we embody or deny.

So I ask you...

If our capacity for Patience is limited only by how much we engage with the trials of Life, wouldn't that mean we have direct influence on our Capacity for it?

Wouldn't that also mean our wellspring for Patience is limited only by our willingness to use it?

Now that we've cleared that up, how do we invoke Patience? It seems simple enough and often times it's the simple, but challenging things that get us where we want to be.

The miraculous elixir of Patience just so happens to be an amalgam of several innate, essential, simple, and challenging virtues.

In order to invoke Patience, we must surrender. We must surrender our ideas of how things should be going and embrace/work with how they are. Sounds an awful lot like Trust.

We have to be consistent in our surrender to the tasks at hand. Sounds an awful lot like Discipline.

We have to be bold enough to believe in our capability to manifest our vision more than our doubt/fear. Sounds an awful lot like Courage.

We have to summon the resolve to stay the course in the face of obstacles. Sounds an awful lot like Strength.

We have to dedicate ourselves to a clear idea of where we are and where we want to be. Sounds eerily like Honesty and Discernment.

I think you get the idea.

The scope of Patience is limited only by our willingness to invoke it. If our willingness meets or exceeds that which we desire to see manifested in our magical world....

...Then you'll manifest it in one form or another.

Simple? Yes.

Easy? Not quite.

Is it uncomfortable to proceed off the beaten path with no guarantee of the vision you started with? Absolutely.

Will you question your purpose and sanity sometimes? Bet.

But you'll also learn something every single time you invoke it. Guaranteed.

Your capacity for the abundance of life will expand every single time you invoke it. Guaranteed.

You'll come to realize that Patience is guiding and shaping you into the Being necessary for that vision as well. Guaranteed.

Patience is a guiding light, a key, and an elixir that calls on you to bring it into your life and being.

Once you do, I assure you that you'll find that there's no stronger force in the Universe. All it demands of you is willingness. Trust its medicine.

To me, Patience is synonymous with Surrender, Trust, Equanimity and Love.

The Cosmic ingredients for the Mysterious, Unfathomable Alchemy of Life.

For those of you that are more spiritually inclined, I'll leave you on this note. It is said in Man's Search For God, that God...

(Universe, Source, whatever you want to call it, GET OVER THE LABELS!)

...is a God of Patience.

Look around you, everything around you including you took Time to be made manifest.

What do you think you were made to do?

I'll wait.