friday five: waiting and working

 See bonus note* below

At RevGals Sally writes: As I write this I can see out over our newly set up veggie plot from my study window. When Tim and I moved here in August last year he set to work clearing the ground, this spring I began planting seeds indoors and out, and now the beds are full of leaf and promise. We have harvested some spinach and lettuce, but still have to wait for the main crops....

Patience is something that sometimes comes easily and sometimes doesn't. In the case of the garden it is easy. I can see the growth and know that waiting will produce good results. With other things patience is more difficult....

Along with looking forward to eating our own veggies, we are also looking forward to seeing four of our children graduate with Bachelors degrees this year. They have worked hard over the three years and stuck at it through some difficult stuff. It would have been easy for them to give up, but they haven't...

Persistence often pays off, but we need to be aware that it sometimes turns into sheer pig headed-ness...

With all that in mind I offer you this Friday Five:

1. Is patience a virtue you possess? If it is then does it come naturally, if not how do you/ did you work at it?
I am generally a patient person, and I think I always have been.. I appreciate delayed gratification, for instance, so waiting for something enjoyable is as much about anticipation as arrival at the event. I never want to open birthday presents before the day, for instance. When I get "derailed," like the time I locked my keys in the car in the parking lot at the grocery store, waiting for the locksmith felt an eternity. I was far from patient then, probably because I felt that "hanging around" while I waited was a big waste of time. I'm not a fan of wasting time.

2. Being patient with ourselves can be a huge challenge, we are often our own worst critics; is there anything you need to be patient with yourself with at the moment?
I am enduring a long-term "waiting upon the Lord" situation. Though it may appear that this would require patience with God (and it does), my own difficulty with the length of this waiting tests my patience with my ability to wait on God. That is very much a patience-with-self issue.

3. Are you the kind of person who can/ will persist with a difficult task? How much of this is personality related?It all depends on the task, and how important it is to me. I think the work of personal growth and healing is perhaps the hardest, but also the most worthy of my efforts. And reconciliation. If there is a breach in an important relationship, or if, like my relationship with my father needed long-term attention for improvement, I will hang in there. If there is hope for restoration, I stick it out. I have no idea if this is personality related or stems from the value I place on what I seek.

4. Can you spot when persistence turns into pig-headed-ness, or do you never get there?
I generally don't get pig-headed in the persistence department, but that isn't to say that I don't sometimes act like a dog with a bone in other areas of life.

5. Post a song or a poem that chills you out and helps you to re-group, re-focus and carry on?
I love this piece. It always gives me a slight chill and stirs my blood. The lyrics are a bit hard to understand, so I've posted them below.

Raise your Voices - The Secret Garden
Raise your voices, raise your voices
Praise to Him thy living word
To the Heavens high ascending
Raise your voices to the Lord

Though your nights be dark and fearful
Though we face the dimming day
Though the heart be sad and tearful
Trust Him, He will light the way

Raise your voices, raise your voices
Praise to Him the living word
To the Heavens high ascending
Raise your voices to the Lord

Through the mists in this vale of sorrow
Through the glass we but darkly see
We will rise again tomorrow
Then our eyes will lifted be

Raise your voices, raise your voices
Praise to Him the living word
To the Heavens high ascending
Raise your voices to the Lord

Long the road that has no ending
Far the path that has no turn
And the soul is never wending
To the place it first was born

See the host of Angels singing
When they hear that trumpet sound
When the piper's call is ringing
Then shall my soul be ever homeward bound

Raise your voices, raise your voices
Praise to Him the living word
To the Heavens high ascending
Raise your voices to the Lord

Mountains tall and seas will thunder
One unceasing chorus ring
Heaven and earth will sleep no longer
Then the universe as one will sing

Raise your voices, raise your voices
Praise to Him the living word
To the Heavens high ascending
Raise your voices to the Lord
Raise your voices to the Lord
Bonus, a picture or a photo that speaks to you of patience or persistence....
*The year I didn't go home for Christmas. I paced myself through the day opening presents, and stopped after every third present opened to write thank you notes for what I had just received. Oh, those were the days (when I was diligent with thank you notes)!