Patience

As for having things work out just how and when we want, wisdom demands that we learn to expect the unexpected. Life thinks nothing of making changes in our plans - after all, it has a lot of people in the picture.

Beneath the anger and agitation runs the river of love.

“LOVE SUFFERS LONG AND IS KIND,” SAINT Paul says. This word - kind - is so simple that we seem to have forgotten what it means; it opens a great avenue of love.

“It takes two to get married and two to quarrel.” No matter what the circumstances, neither person bears sole responsibility for a quarrel. It is an encouraging outlook, because if both are responsible, both together can find a solution - not merely a compromise, but a way to resolve the quarrel peacefully.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

To bring joy to a single heart is better
Than building countless shrines for worship;
To capture one heart through kindness is better
Than setting a thousand free.

Lovely flowers smell sweet, the Buddha says, but they fade, and their fragrance cannot last. The fragrance of goodness, however, abides. When you have been in the presence of someone who has love for all, you will take home with you a little of that person’s kindness and patience, a heart at peace, just as the smell of roses remains in a room long after the flowers are gone. Even you and I, when we can forgive unkind words or malicious behavior and not carry agitation in our hearts, will leave a fragrance that others, too, will carry away.

But for Teresa the real battle was within, and the surest weapon against the negative forces in human consciousness is patience. Patience means self-mastery: the capacity to hold on and remain loving in a difficult situation when every atom of your being wants to turn and run.

You may be dashing, glamorous, fascinating, and alluring; you may be tall, dark, and handsome; lissome and lovely - or whatever the current fancy may be. But without patience, you cannot be called a great lover; it would be a contradiction in terms.

“Patience is the ornament of the brave.” Patience is the real badge of courage; it is equally the mark of love.