Patience is not passive, on the contrary, it is concentrated strength. Martial artist Bruce Lee.
If Covid-19 has taught us anything, it is the value of patience. Pacing the floor, yelling, screaming, pitching a fit does not chase away this illusive villain. If anything, a lack of patience can lead to infection.
So how do we master this virtue? Quotes about the value of patience would fill a book; how to achieve it, not so much. But during this time, two domesticities, needlecraft and bread making, have emerged not only as means for passing time, but also for developing creativity.
Baking - two of our grandchildren have taken up baking during this period of working at home. With Covid-19 prompting at-home work assignments, many employees no longer spend hours traveling to and from their job site. While their work day may be as long as ever, travel time is non existent. With the extra time, one grandson has discovered joy in making bread…from scratch. And one granddaughter is fascinated with baking desserts, especially cupcakes.
I love bread fresh from the oven. Not only does the first bite tickle the tastebuds, the sweet scent welcomes all partakers. There’s nothing like the aroma of yeast bread baking. After my husband and I married, our first apartment in Dallas, Texas, was situated between a Mrs. Baird’s Bread bakery and a Lone Star Donuts bakery. In remembering that tiny three-room dwelling, the aroma constantly permeating the air has stayed with me all these years.
Alas, I know myself. I do not have the patience to wait for yeast to do its magic. Thus, I’ve never never been tempted to make homemade bread beyond cornbread.
Needlework - knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, cross-stitch, embroidering, quilting - have all seen a resurgence during these past months. With today’s Internet shopping, needle workers can find yarns, threads, patterns without leaving the house. Through the years, I’ve bemoaned that I dislike any activity involving needle and thread. Sewing in any format makes me nervous rather than calms any jitters. And yet, I’ve seen the serenity that it can bring some.
All in our family have great collections of crocheted squares that our aunt, who makes them, calls dishrags. I use mine more often as trivets. She has also given away countless hats not only to family members, but also to organizations helping the homeless. She’s happy if her hands are busy. When our family kept vigil as my mother-in-law lay dying under the care of hospice, this aunt, years younger than her 92-year-old sister-in-law, sat for hours with the family. All that time, she crocheted one item after another. Her serenity was contagious. Her patience calmed the rest of us.
While I admire the work of bakers and needleworkers, these activities are not for me. I turn to reading and writing to pass the time. They counter stress for me. Yet I know plenty of folks who find these activities tedious to them.
Once again, one size, one specific undertaking, does not fit all. Because we are different, we each must seek those pursuits that will still our own restlessness. But in this long period of waiting for cure and vaccine, we must seek the positive ventures that help us, but do no harm to others. Our angst with limitations must not endanger the more vulnerable.
Bruce Lee, in his observation about patience cited above, notes that in martial arts, patience leads to success in overcoming an opponent; it is strength. That fact is true in all other phases of life. But we doers and goers don’t like to wait. We want to do. We want to go. An invisible enemy should not hinder our desires. Yet like a glass wall, it has stopped us in our tracks. Whenever, we want to ignore the villain, let us remember the more than 300,000 Americans killed by this invisible enemy on American soil. It is a sober reminder to stir a sense of patience in each of us.
Perhaps, American musician Moby says it best. “I have no patience for anyone who thinks they've figured things out, no patience for people who think they're right at the expense of everyone else. The world is too connected and too complicated to conform to any of our rigid ideas of what it should be like.”
Patience - it is a delicate art form requiring much of us, but giving immense strength in return.
2020
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