Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Topic is Patience

Yesterday was one of those frantic days with a long "to do" list. One item was to buy a new planner to replace my lost one which is somewhere in sunny California...Probably left in a motel room but neither place we stayed had seen it when called about it. The mystery of the lost planner. So how can I, the master list maker and lover of writing all things down, survive? With PATIENCE my husband suggests...maybe someone will find your planner and mail it to you. But we are leaving for Texas this Friday and I have to get organized before then...which brings me to the topic for today PATIENCE. We never have enough if it ever....just when we think we do, something else will unexpectedly arise to test it and prove to us our incompetence in that area.

So what is PATIENCE?...well, I looked it up and it is an amazing principle...which includes: enduring, tolerance, uncomplaining, long-suffering, and serene. Able to endure waiting or delay without becoming annoyed or upset. Persevering calmly when faced with difficulties and able to tolerate being hurt, provoked, or annoyed without complaint or loss of temper. Sounds like a SAINT or ANGEL to me. Other words used are: endurance, staying power, persistence, fortitude, serenity to preserve calmly when faced with difficulties and not loosing one's temper.

Anyone out there want to claim they are patient? I'm usually pretty laid back but today I had so many errands to run-get maps from automobile club, return some sale items, buy a new planner, see the doctor for new blood pressure medication then I ended up at my most unfavorite but most convenient pharmacy in Walmart to get new pills. Okay, so I managed to do all of my list written on the back of an envelope with patience until I got to Walmart.

My doctor had faxed my prescription over, so I waited in the pickup line for about 10 minutes to get my pills. But they weren't ready, they did have my papers but it had to be input in the computer and then the pills labeled and that would take 25 minutes. I was told to take a seat and wait and they would call me...so 35 minutes later I'm wondering where are my pills? I get back in the pickup line and ask the salesperson...she says "oops-someone had put them on the shelf instead of by the cash register."..she was sorry BUT I was irritated, impatient, close to expressing a little bit of anger...time to take a deep breath and realize waiting for no good reason does happen to all of us at some time but incompetency is so frustrating to me. Of course getting upset doesn't help my high blood pressure!!