Patience....not so virtuous!

Virtue or vice?

You've  heard the saying that "Patience is a virtue" well.....that's highly debatable. In the wake of the "instant gratification" era of the 21st century, patience has never been so compromised.

Where is patience? Who is she? Is she a feminist? I suspect she is but a tad old-fashioned.

Patience is a woman because she waits. She waits for her prince to come, she waits until he slips a ring on her finger, she waits 9 months for a bundle of joy, she waits for the bundles when they return from school, she waits until the casserole cooks and the laundry dries and for the flowers to bloom.

Waiting is what she does best and so it's endless.......and all the while her dreams are slipping away.

I have known patience. We used to be friends. Patience and I played the waiting game.

I waited and waited for something to happen; something that would release me from my self-made prison.

Waiting is a dangerous game. It is often lethargy and cowardice in disguise. I know - because they were unwelcome guests in my home.  When I decided to take control and make better choices they were evicted.

Patience in the form of a vestal virgin , humble and servile, is the reason we stay in jobs that we don't enjoy and relationships that do not fulfil. Patience makes martyrs of us as we take the easy option of doing nothing. 

Patience models herself as a  paragon of virtue, a quality many strive to cultivate but she is a false friend. She has her uses but be careful....... she may allow you to dig yourself a hole and stay there! 

Patience is a jailor;  she may lock you up and throw away the key. But she is kind and will allow you to look out of the bars of your cell and gaze up at the sky. She will listen to your wistful sighs and lend her shoulder to cry on. Patience has taught me a few hard lessons and a few that I wish I could have dropped.

Patient people are usually waiting for other people to change or the world to change for them.

They sometimes wake up (after a lifetime of patience) and find that a great many opportunities have passed them by. Patience's companion is Caution and the best thing to do with that is throw it to the wind.

Patience can make you a patient