Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Patience & faith”
[Update: After such a tumultuous 2020, as I and many hope for change in 2021, this blog about the wisdom of no change seems especially timely . . .] As I ponder the start to the new year, at first, I feel sorry for myself. I make the foolish, painful mistake of comparing myself to others and focusing on …
What’s the difference between hope and false expectations? How do we know when to hope for the best and when we’re deluding ourselves? In each case, we’re throwing ourselves open to faith, to things we can’t control or predict. Is there such a thing as healthy and unhealthy hope, and if so, where’s the line? On the one hand, I’ve often found the …
Have you ever met an earth angel–a regular person in an everyday place who says something deeply profound at just the moment you need to hear it most? Yesterday, my local post office clerk was that angel. “Keep your fingers crossed for me, Roy,” I said, handing him my book in an envelope addressed to a screenplay reviewer in L.A. …
In Spanish, the word “esperar” means both to wait and to hope. This is a good lesson. How many of us wait not with hope, but with impatience and doubt? Much of life requires waiting, and how we wait can make all the difference to our happiness. When you’re on a long line at the post office, on hold for …
I’m sad to report that today, I was an airport asshole. As I stood in line for the ticket counter, jammed in among several screaming babies, frazzled moms with carry-on car seats, and a crew of eight buzz-cut army guys with two overstuffed duffle bags each, the wait around the four winding turnstiles to the ticket agents seemed endless. I …
A couple of weeks ago, I became inspired to feng shui my house. The biggest area that needed improvement was my front door. Your entranceway is supposed to be “the mouth of Chi,” where you welcome in opportunity. Since my front door is also in the north, that’s the career area of my home. According to the feng shui map, …
In my graduate school library, there’s a really old, unreliable elevator. It’s so slow that it often takes a full ten minutes to get from the third floor to the first. Sometimes, it doesn’t come at all. As a joke, we nicknamed it “Godot,” referring to a Samuel Beckett play about two men waiting endlessly. Right now, my whole …
“I want an Oompa Loompa, and I want it NOW!” screams little Veruca Salt to her father in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. While I dislike her spoiled brat character, I can certainly relate to her impatience and desire to get what she wants right now. Have you ever been in a “holding pattern” in your life, taking steps toward where …
My upstairs neighbor has a theory. “If you find someone you really like, you should wait 30 days before sleeping with them,” she told me over my kitchen table. “It worked for me and my husband.” I don’t know that I agree we need to wait a month before sleeping with someone. (In fact, I like to kiss a …
