Hi Visionary Cartographers!

Coming out of some periods of deep practice, so I am excited to share some insights with you.

~

Patience – Being and Becoming

Aristotle once articulated, “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”

Socrates shared, “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

Today’s writing focuses on patience. Having spent the last few weeks steeped in the wisdom of Buddhist sages, I find it fitting to counterbalance this with some Stoic philosophy.

The parallels between the wisdom streams of the East and West are endlessly fascinating. Many remark that while the philosophy of the East supports the journey of being, it is the philosophy of the West that underpins the journey of becoming.

I believe in both being and becoming, and their fundamental entanglements with full life engagement.

At times, we may prefer one over the other, to balance our natural dispositions or honor a unique life stage. However, to deny one for the other, I believe, comes at a great cost. Ultimately, the aim is to let deepening being inform alive becoming, and alive becoming create the conditions for ever-widening being.

Whether one is in a stage of life where the focus is more on being, or the passions of becoming – or they are well-balanced in the daily rhythms of life, these arts of living require a critical ingredient: Patience.

Patience is beautiful and often misunderstood.

We hear the cliché that “patience is a virtue.” But for many of us, the early developmental context of how we heard this phrase makes it seem like a poison.

How naive to be patient. Maybe it sounds good in theory, but in practice… Getting what you want, when you want it, and being assertive to make it happen, is seen as desirable and in demand.

And there is some real mojo there. If patience is rooted in compliance, apathy, or repression – we have every reason to be suspicious of its “virtue.”

However, when the motivation, the methodology, and the vision of our lives are ripe with inspired action… Patience actually becomes the critical ingredient to keep everything on track.

Plato stated, “Never discourage anyone…who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”

Seneca observed, “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”

Patience as a virtue is intimately interlinked with what I like to think of as Developmental Time.

Ripening, growth, maturation – these patterns of becoming imply specific qualities and conditions that are required for full flourishing.

Just as a gardener tends to the intricate interplays in their soil, so too do we on the path of mastery tend to the foundational relationships which support the work we are here to do.

The practice of patience becomes more relevant the more you care about the cultivation of your becoming. Because the higher quality your craft… the more sensitive you are to what is additive and what is subtractive.

Patience and its practice become a protection, such that in times of stress, challenge, frustration, reactivity we don’t do something stupid, act in outrage, say what we didn’t mean to say…etc., and destroy the fertile grounds of our great work.

Patience preserves the good in the trying times, protects the good work, such that we can return to it more easily and seamlessly.

Said simply, Patience protects while Impatience allows destruction.

So, in this spirit, I will leave you with three quotes, pointing us back home to the roots and reasons of why to practice patience profoundly.

~DHR

 

Rumi – “The garden of the world has no limits, except in your mind. Its presence is more beautiful than the stars, with more clarity than the polished mirror of your heart. That is the garden of flowers within your own self. Plant the love of the holy ones within your spirit; don’t give your heart to anything, but the love of those whose hearts are glad. Be patient, but not idle; be slow to anger, but abounding in love. Be serious, yet full of joy; humble, but bold in the spirit.”

Kenzi Gyatso – “Patience protects us from losing our minds in the maze of experiences where we encounter all possible types of people and situations. It gives us the freedom to remain calm and composed, in the midst of insult and disappointment. Without it, we are like a tree without roots, vulnerable to being swept away by the storms of negativity.”

Aristotle – “Patience is so like fortitude that she seems either her sister or her daughter. The serene, silent, never-failing power of patience, which can endure any hardship. Great things are taught by nature to those who have the patience to learn them.”