Impatience

SUN., MAR. 28, 1993, 5:46 AM
FARM, STUDY

Impatience implies that you can’t accept the passage of time and action that you expect. This means that time seems to pass too slowly or that it seems to be going by too quickly… though it is mostly the former. Right now you want to see the sun appear to rise, and it should be time. There… the rim is visible. A new day has officially begun. Will there be occasions of impatience in it? If so, you should be more aware of these than you would have been without this Teaching.

Impatience can be a virtue. You are seeking to do some good, and the result comes too slowly. You may work harder in our impatience, or perhaps you just must wait. Either way, you are seeking a good, and it doesn’t come as you expect. Too often you are impatient if the title for a Teaching such as this doesn’t come to you immediately. Even though you know that I never have failed you yet, so that you’re not really worried about the final “gift”, you become impatient if you have to remain in a classic meditative posture, with mind turned to Me. Now I call it good that you want to start hearing Me, but less than good if your primary motivation is to get this over in an hour so you can be busy with other tasks.

Some are impatient with life, mostly because it seems to be going by too slowly. Youth want to be older. Those in school want to be through. Those in job positions want to succeed before they have put in the time and acquired the experience to do this naturally. Some others are impatient to retire… to “be out of here.”

Impatience has not often been one of your sins. Oh, you were a bit impatient that you couldn’t be sure exactly what your career would be, as a young man. Yet when you did establish it you were not impatient to succeed, as you see this in some of your younger colleagues. Now that the struggle to be where you are is long past you have forgotten those individual times of impatience, when development of some action was slower than you wanted.

Now your rhythm is quite a good one. You passed up the convention for an easier week, with accomplishment of these home tasks. But time will still be insufficient for all that you need to do. You shall experience “reverse impatience” when time seems to go to quickly, and you are impatient to get certain tasks accomplished, and the time is insufficient. Consider how it would have been with all of the wonderful convention stress added. Reduce the tasks, and don’t take on others that you can avoid. You are doing this well, even though imperfectly.

You can feel impatience that the end of a term comes too slowly. You can also feel its opposite when there is not enough time to do all that you have planned and consider desirable. The feeling I encourage is that the semester is “just right,” that all of its time is used well, and it ends just when it should. Realize that you now have more to offer in each of your courses than can be put forth in any term. See that as a plus. You now have good choices.