“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach – waiting for a gift from the sea.”
~ From James Clavell’s novel, Shogun
Often, I have written about change and the need to let go of the past in order to make room for new possibilities. But what if you are eager for change, ready to let go, and nothing is happening or, more accurately, the change is not happening as fast as you desire?
As we await a buyer for our condo, celebrate my husband’s retirement, and look forward to planning our first trip abroad, the topics of patience and faith in the future are prominent in my mind.
As an Aries, patience has not been one of my strong traits. Perhaps you too have found that, once you set a course of action, you are ready to launch forth. Sometimes that works and other times it seems there are barriers to overcome. Is the best timing expressed by immediate action? Or, could creation often include a process of development that I don’t completely understand?
Perhaps the biblical expression – in the fullness of time – speaks more clearly to the issue. You could say that things flow when the time is ripe. A peach is tastier when ripe. Do I want to launch an unripened future? Certainly not.
The quote from Shogun, above, links impatience with greed and lack of faith. I realize that impatience also disregards the loving wisdom of God, who loves and supports our highest good. In the moment of my impatience, I have lost faith in my Source.
Clearly, there is nothing I need do. My role is to “lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach – waiting for a gift from the sea.”
In the fullness of time, the perfect steward of our condo will fall in love with it, as we did twelve years ago, and we will move into the next adventure of our lives. I am reminded that it is the loving wisdom of God – and not me with my limited awareness – that determines when that time will be.