patience

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Patience, I realize more and more clearly, might be the strongest power in the entire universe, and might also be the greatest gift life gives me every day. The most wonderful aspect of patience is that it doesn’t have to work to achieve its goals. It just lets, waits, and watches as the miracle of a moment unfolds, and since I always exist within the miracle of the moment, I can also simply let, wait, and watch, and the grace of the moment will forever reveal itself. There’s a wonderful willingness in our universe, a readiness to do exactly what’s necessary in each instant, and sometimes I sense that readiness inside and all around me. It’s as if everything – trees, streets, sounds around the neighborhoods, even shadowy silence – is softly subordinating itself to the everlasting wishes of each moment. And no work is involved. It’s all about simply staying where we all live – inside the astounding power of patience.

SOME ADVICE

ADVICE TO MY CHILDREN 
AND GRANDCHILDREN

Notice the way stars seem to rustle 
when you see them from a field. 
Find the place where sunsets disappear,
and visit it when you're sad. 
Listen to the breezes 
when they organize themselves and sing together. 
And keep your eyes 
on other faces. 
Notice the kindness 
that often blossoms  
in these faces 
like crowds of flowers.
Be like water, 
just waiting and watching and choosing patience 
over chancy things like tenaciousness, 
and work with thoroughness and silkiness 
like water does,
doing the singing and dancing of the universe
with serenity and acquiescence. 
See mist as something special, 
and downpours too,
and suffering also, 
because it causes understanding
and flows beside us 
forever and ever.

RACING

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Saturday, June 25, 2022

In these days of my retirement, I still have a somewhat busy life, and do a fair amount of ‘racing around’, but I guess I’m racing around more slowly and patiently — more willing, you might say, to good-naturedly participate in the race while letting the race actually run itself. On a given day, I’m going here and there and back and forth, checking off my list of to-do’s and to-get’s, but now I’m running a gentler, more warmhearted race. You might say I’m slowly racing from task to task, and with more composure, perhaps the way sparrows seem to collect their seeds at the feeder with both quickness and calmness. I’ve noticed that the wind sometimes blows on our street in a similar way – rushing among the houses, but in a somehow stress-free manner, doing its to-do’s with both enthusiasm and restfulness. As a senior now, I’m seeing the benefits in that kind of racing around. With my white beard and bald head, I’m breaking new records for getting things done with a cozy and patient kind of speed.

Patience

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Friday, March 11, 2022

Sometimes, it seems almost fanciful to believe that a power like patience can truly overcome any difficult circumstance and level out the roughest of roads – and that’s when I need some proof. Sometimes, I just sit quietly and try to ‘see’ patience and its powers, and soon it seems clear to me, once again, that it is not a physical, material entity – not a ‘thing’ I can measure and weigh. I can’t ‘study’ patience the way I might study a car engine, seeing how all its parts fit and work together. No, I soon realize that patience is as immeasurable as the wind, as boundless as the sky, and thus is able to easily show hospitality to, and work with, any situation that arises in life. It’s like a shoreless, bottomless ocean that heartily welcomes even enormous stones thrown into it. And it is always present for me – always waiting and willing to show me how to be an easygoing host to whatever arises, be it triumphs or fears, sorrows or wonders.

IN PATIENCE, S.C.

In Patience, South Carolina, 
people show tolerance even for raving storms. 
Sometimes their self-restraint
when facing problems seems similar 
to trees kindly caring for high winds 
by waving to them. 
People in this uncomplaining town 
are almost imperturbable,
particularly when trouble blows through.
Somehow, they effortlessly find a way 
to welcome the trouble 
as an affable consultant 
able to advise on a new trail to take. 
You can't believe the calmness 
that almost constantly comes over 
people in Patience, 
as if calmness is a gift 
that keeps on giving in this town, 
as if serenity always streams through them 
like light breezes in trees. 
Doggedness doesn't come any tougher 
than in Patience, 
where even death is endured 
with indefatigable kindness.   

If you visit Patience, 
perseverance and composure 
will walk around town with you.

**…the Mystic River on our 3-mile walk this morning…**

WORDS LIKE LIGHT

Thursday, September 2, 2021

WEALTHY

In terms of dollars, I don’t have money to burn, but in terms of real riches, I am a wealthy man. I am actually an heir – a beneficiary of assets that can never be exhausted. I have access, 24/7, to funds that can keep me continually healthy and happy. These funds are not dollars, not coins or cash or any kind of material currency. No, my wealth is the wealth that all of us share – the wealth of intangible – and therefore inexhaustible – qualities, like caring and calmness and quietness and patience. Like all of us, I have a bottomless ‘bank account’ of these qualities. I can withdraw them at any time, and amazingly, the account instantly refills with more than I withdrew. I get wealthier with kindness the more I spend it, and patience produces more patience the more I practice it!

IN WEALTH

In Wealth, WA, USA,
there's prosperity in every moment, 
even in sorrow, 
which makes mounds of wisdom 
for those who wait for it. 
Even confusion has riches to bestow
when clarity comes back, 
and hard work always shows 
where treasures lie. 
In Wealth, the true valuables 
are kindness and caring,
of which there are mountains 
in this little town's treasury, 
and patience always produces resources
 folks had never noticed before. 
This town has cash hidden 
in breezes and sunshine and shadows, 
there are stacks of securities 
called 'quietness'
in every resident's portfolio,
and every street is called 'Easy'.

If you visit well-off Wealth, 
you're in for a surprise, 
for you'll discover how filthy-rich 
you, too, have always been!