patience

We have been moving the last month. It's a local move but a move is a move and it's the third one in three years---way too many. We have done much of the packing and moving ourselves, with help from family and finally the heavy stuff by a local mover.

Needless to say we are tired and our patience is tested. I find myself wanting to say "and why are we working on that now?!" as he pulls  the GPS out of a box and tries to get it working (when we aren't going anywhere!) When I mentioned my frustration to a friend she also told a story of frustration and impatience. They were having a Christmas Eve dinner for friends and family and a few minutes before guests arrived, her husband changed the vacuum cleaner bag in the middle of the living room...dust flying everywhere.  Now granted she had been asking him to change it for weeks but "why are we working on that now!?"

Then I read about  nuns at a Benedictine Abbey who have a tradition to deal with this very human experience of impatience.  Before any two or group of them start working on a mutual project, they bow to each other and say, "Please have patience with me in this endeavor."

What would our days look like if we started our days bowing to each other--husbands, children, co-workers--and each said, "Please have patience with me in this day?"

And especially,
"Dear God, please have patience with me this day."

Blessings-Penny