Patience is a learned virtue

Growing up, patience was not one of my strongest virtues, when I wanted something, I wanted it now. I would become so anxious about things that it made me physically ill. The dictionary defines patience as the will or ability to wait or endure without complaint and steadiness or as endurance or perseverance in the performance of the task.

It wasn’t until I had children that I learned patience. As a stay-at-home mom, I am with my children 24-7 and at times my patience level is almost non-existent. My eldest son Erik (5) is the master of pushing my buttons, I have had to really work on not losing my temper with him. With children they want what they want when they want it and they only think about themselves.  There is no reasoning with a toddler, you can’t just say no and explain to them why. 

From the time he learned to speak, it has been a battle of wills, mine versus his, as I tried in vain to reinforce the rules that my husband and I set out for our home. Time outs often stretched into 20 minutes with one or both of us in tears.  For months and months this went on trying my patience until I felt ready to explode. How can a child so young be able to push my buttons so much? There were times that I had to remove myself from the situation. Over time I have learned to walk away from the situation and let him have his fit, when he realizes that I am not going to give in to him, he stops and goes on to other things. My patience level has increased in the 5 years I’ve been a parent.

 Learning patience as a parent has also helped me as a writer. A fledgling writer sends out query after query after query waiting for the acceptances from the publishing world that they desire. Over time the patience level wears thin and insecurity rears its ugly head as questions a rise. “Am I a good enough writer to be published?”  until one day the letter you have been waiting for arrives!  As a writer you are balancing delicately between the patience to persevere until the article is accepted and the impatience that leads to throwing in towel for good.