If you’ve listened to any of my guided meditations, you know I talk a lot about being curious and kind.
That’s because we tend to be impatient and critical with ourselves.
There is a little voice inside my head that whispers “Faster, hurry up now, come on, everyone else is way ahead of you, get it together now, let’s go, no time to waste, why can’t you get this done already?”
Patience is not what I’m best at.
For most of my life, I thought that patience was the same as waiting passively — like a wall-flower, hoping someone will come invite me to dance. Patience felt powerless.
And then I had a realization:
That patience was really about being kind to myself (and others) when I felt irritated and pushy about things not unfolding along my preferred timeline.
Sometimes life takes its own time with things.
There is a distance between how things are now, and how you would like them to be.
How do you handle the gap?
Can you be present, and patient, in this moment?
Patience can still have action and power — a gentle persistence — but without being pushy or critical or irritable. Patience is about kindness with the gap, kindness with timing, kindness with yourself and others.
It’s not always easy to be a human.
Our minds get a little crazy. Our hearts get stormy. Our bodies don’t always behave as we’d like — aging, illness, and unexpected injury all play their part within our lives.
It’s not always easy to be a human.
There can be a painful gap between how things are now, and how we would like them to be, and the timing might be outside our control. Sometimes we fall into that gap — obsess over it — and it hurts very much when we are caught there.
That’s why this constant practice of kindness, towards yourself. This practice of compassion.
Not always easy.
But also — remember — this is temporary.
One day, we each get to experience the end of life. Our own, and of those we love. That part is not easy. But it is a part of being alive.
That is what makes this life — your life — so sacred.
That is what makes each moment — bitter, sweet, sour, salty — so precious.
That is why you are so worthy of love, and care, and patience, and kindness. Because this one life is temporary. And all the experiences and emotions that come along the way, well, that’s part of the journey.
What a sacred adventure this life is.
So.
Patience, love. And tenderness for all you experience, and all the challenge and beauty of being a human.
xo
Kim
Kim Nicol 