The end of impatience

Youth goes hand in hand with impatience. Not so much that it’s limited in the time it has at its disposal, but because youth has so an impressive array of options that it wants to be acting on them at once. Too many things going on that can’t get done fast enough to address the next ones. 

Gradually though, as we fail to always get what we want in the time we had hope for, as we experience failures, errors and surprises of all kind, impatience begins to erode and gains more elasticity in the way we look at it. It’s no longer as firm and as unconditional as it is often fraught with issues than are created by rushing things along. 

Later, it keeps on getting worse as impatience further deteriorates and loses most of its cutting edge as well as its luster, as we discover patience, its opposite, that all along was quietly waiting for us to begin using it and appreciating it. 

That is in fact quite paradoxical as the less time we have left in front of us, the more amenable we seem to make peace with, and use patience, as it was intended for. This time element even becomes irrelevant as we are discovering the process inherent with patience and start showing some real appreciation for it. 

We no longer see the tool as an end, but rather as a pleasing process that we enjoy observing as it slowly unfolds its power of maturation and its perfect use of time. That how impatience eventually leads to a renewed interest for, and sometime a re-discovery of patience.