Today, people celebrate fastness. Fast service, fast food, fast enlightenment and so on.

The ability to be patience, to be enduring and to tolerate has become a weakness in public media.

If we encounter slow service, we get annoyed, we try to get something done. If not, we believe we are weak and that we are being bullied.

At the salad counter, the staff is busy with some chores. I went up to the counter and press the service bell. Ding, ding, ding, ding! The staff hurried and dropped the salad bowl. Came to the counter with an irritated expression. bang the bowl onto my tray. Great, I just ruined the mood for lunch.

If someone is disrespectful, we make sure we retaliate.  If someone is driving too slow, we have to honk like it’s the end of the world.

While it is good to encourage efficiencies, it is totally wrong to believe that efficiencies is caused by impatience.

Give ourselves extra time by being patient

Instead of believing that we have to react instantly , patience allow us the opportunity to access a situation first. Remember, we do not need to rush unless we want to.

What others do to us is their karma, how we react is ours.

If society believe that patience and endurance is weakness, people are being encouraged to be reckless. If we celebrate recklessness, then opportunities for regrets increases. Sometimes we may be wronged or hurt, being patient prevent us from escalating a bad situation into a disaster.

Mastery of patience means mastery of self.

To be patient means that we are able to master our emotions.  When standing in a long queue, do we have patience to endure or do we stand there feeling angry and miserable? It’s all up to us.

Patience creates opportunities for success.

Be it spiritual goals or worldly affairs. Those who succeeded in their goals had shared with us how their patience and endurance paid off in the end. The ability to never give up requires patience. Patience with ourselves, patience with others and patience with the situations.

The strength of patience lies in loving kindness

The more we love a person, the more patience we have towards them. If our children is learning to walk, we need patience to help them. If we are helping our aged relatives to walk, we need patience to help them. We do not feel burdened because we love them. Therefore building patience is building love and understanding. It is not a weakness. It is a strength.

Love ourselves, be patient with ourselves

We set different goals and objectives in life. To succeed we must apply effort. However, that doesn’t mean we have to be mean towards ourselves. Learn to give ourselves opportunities to rest, to fail and to develop.

Patience creates harmony.

Allow people to have a bad day. Your love one is a mere mortal, not saints. They have a bad day and may behave off the mark. Not that we encourage bad behaviour, but a little love and understanding helps soothe a wounded mind. Step back and be patient. Harmony in the family is the most precious.

Extend our love and understanding to a wider circle of people, there you have it, we are practicing perfection of patience and endurance. Our baby steps towards enlightenment.