When the waiting in life feels long, gain a new perspective on what patience should feel like.
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Welcome to the Be Your Best Self Blog by Marsha Abbott.
"These Two Guys..."
I know these two guys, and they carry with them something that is magical inside…
Does this magic live inside of you? Because for me, it doesn’t. And I wish more than anything that it did…
So what makes these two guys so special? And how did I notice the magic within them? It all started when I was just a little girl…
To understand this story, I must first talk about my mom. I have a mother that is the social butterfly of every group. Whether she is talking to a little child, an adult she knows, or even a perfect stranger…she is always making conversation and getting to know everyone around her. So as a little girl, all of the focus has always seemed to be on my mother and her bubbly personality. She can literally talk to ANYONE! And that is what you would notice when she is out and about…doing “her” thing.
But what everyone failed to see, what I failed to see as a little girl too, is what was happening behind her…Who was standing there? Who was listening in? Who continues today to project this magic every time my mom is…well…being “my mom”?
It’s one of these two guys I am talking about today…it’s My Dad! As I grew up and saw this same scenario play out time and time again with my mother, there was one consistent theme with my father…he sat back on the sidelines and patiently waited for her. In fact, my father has practiced more patience in one lifetime then I could ever hope to achieve. It’s why he seems so magical to me as I see him out doing “his” thing.
So, who is this second guy? Who else carries the magic of patience with him everywhere he goes?
Well, let’s just say when it comes to me and my mom…the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! I love to have conversations with everyone around me. And I could talk for hours on end to perfect strangers. But this time around, I am not making the same mistake I made as a little girl. I know who is standing right there. I know who is listening in. And I see the magic that projects out of him every time I am being…well…”me”.
And this man is my amazing husband! Rarely a day goes by that I don’t recognize the patience he carries with him when dealing with me. Whether it’s my constant need to talk to everyone. Or my obsessive desire to get one last thing done, which in turn makes me late no matter where we are going. He sits back on the sidelines and waits…patiently.
Who in your life is carrying with them this magic inside? Who in your life is being more patient than you could ever have imagined? Maybe it’s patience with just you, or maybe it’s patience with everyone around them. Whatever the case, do you recognize this inside of them? And do you thank them and appreciate them regularly for this incredible quality they have?
If you are like me and you lack this beautiful gift of patience, it can be easy to take for granted this quality in others. Especially when it is a “silent” gift that can often go unnoticed. But more often than not, the patience that people choose to exhibit with others typically comes from the great love they have for those people in their life.
So I am going to challenge you today. I am going to give you a hard task to complete. I want you to really look around the next time you are doing “your thing”. And I want you to not forget to look behind you and see who is patiently waiting…who is patiently doing “their” thing. Maybe it is your parent, your significant other, or your best friend. Or perhaps it is even a perfect stranger. Whoever it is, I want you to not only see this, but I want you to appreciate and honor them for this. Don’t let it go unnoticed any longer.
These two great and amazing guys in my life have taught me so much about the true meaning of patience. A gift I very much lack. And these same people also exist in your life too. So, let’s not let another day go by where we allow this magical quality to go unnoticed. And who knows, because of them, maybe we will even find a way to figure out how we too can become more patient. Maybe we will even figure out a way to get this magic to live inside of us too.
*For those of you struggling with something in life or have a topic of interest that you want me to talk about in this blog, email me at BeYourBestSelfBlog@gmail.com. Let’s work together to Be Our Best Selves!