You're getting a twofer here today, this week's Hodgepodge questions (scroll all the way down), aaaand my word of the day in the Write 31 Challenge. Here we go-
Day 13-patience
It's always something, isn't it? There's always some situation or circumstance in our lives that calls for patience we don't have. People we encounter, or sometimes even live with, who make us dig deep into our well of patience. Dreams we nurture and believe in and hope for that require patience in the waiting.
I've spent a lot of my adult life waiting on the next thing. We haven't stayed put in any one place too long, and most moves we've made were made knowing there would be a next thing. What will it be? When will it happen? Where will we go? What about after that? How long will we be in this next new place? When will it feel like home?
As I've grown up I've learned a few things I guess could best be lumped under the heading life lessons. All involve patience. When I step back and think about these life lessons I realize so many of them were learned not in the achievement of some thing, but in the waiting that came before. I learned 25 years and six moves ago that I need to embrace the waiting. That if I can't find joy in the waiting I'm not going to enjoy my life. I need to find joy in the wait.
We're building a house from the ground up, something new for us, and if I'm being completely honest, a task that feels monumental some days. I never really had this dream of building a home from scratch. I can make anyplace feel like home, and I'm sure we could have moved into an already built place and I'd grow to love it in time because that's how I'm made.
But we fell in love with a plot of land and here we are, building a house. I'm trying each day to embrace the process, a process that involves a whole lot of waiting. Waiting on boxes to be checked. Inspections to be completed. Permits to be issued. Contractors to be available. Rain to quit raining. The list goes on. And on and on.
Do you know how many of those items are within my ability to control? Pretty much none, and I'm honestly okay with that. In fact I'm determined to enjoy the slow process of creating something beautiful out of red clay and overgrown pines. This is all new to me, and I'm not what you'd call 'handy'. I watch with some amazement as the excavator digs exactly where he needs to dig, connects hoses and pipes, and voila we have a sewer. It's the little things people.
And isn't that really true? It's not cliche. It is the little things. If I look at the great big picture which is a completed home on a now empty lot it's overwhelming. If I take note of the small changes happening over time, it feels much less so.
If I'm patient, if I don't wish this year away in order to get to the finished piece, I'll learn some things. Brick by brick is how it's done. Building a house and building a life.
1. What's something that has recently 'tried your patience'?
2. Do you think patience comes to us naturally or is it something you have to learn as you grow? On a scale of 1-10 generally how patient are you? (1=I blow up at the drop of a hat and 10=I've got all the time in the world).
3. Share about a time when you felt like you could fly. Or a time you wished you could fly. Or a time you felt like you were flying.
4. Your favorite song with the word fly in the title or lyrics, or your favorite song that relates to flying in some way?
5. What's in your fall picnic basket and where are we picnicking in your neck of the woods this time of year?
6. Carpentry, electrical, plumbing, landscaping...which skill would you most like to possess and how would you put that skill to use today?
7. What's something you think is too expensive to justify buying lately?
8. Insert your own random thought here.
Oh goodness I was just on Kathy's post on patience which got me thinking about all this....patience! what's that? lol I have struggled me whole life it seems on that particular little virtue and it continues to elude me time and time again. Oh I may be better then I was when I was younger, but I don't see it going away. And yet at the same time one MUST be patient. In soooo many different areas. Right now I am waiting on the Lord in a few areas and the answer seems to be.....be patient. Well, being patient requires His power for me, so it does keep me close I guess, lol. Have a good day!
ReplyDeletePatience ain't for sissies for sure!! And neither is building a house from scratch! But both are so worth it!!
ReplyDeleteThank you Joyce, see you tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThe work toward developing patience is life long. But at the same time, it teaches us so much.
ReplyDelete6. Fly me to the moon....I want to fly away,fly away...
Patience is something I struggle with daily, but with everything that's gone on this past year, I've learned to wait on the Lord for answers and to trust in His perfect timing.
ReplyDeleteBuilding a house will definitely try your patience, and, sometimes, even your marriage. Of course, it's all worth it when you're enjoying the end result :) Take lots of pictures and enjoy the process the best you can...while waiting for contractors, bad weather to pass, and all of the other things that will crop up.
ReplyDeleteI struggle with patience too, especially when driving. I'm not talking road rage...just no patience with traffic and people who don't use turn signals. Ha! Thanks for another fun Hodgepodge!
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