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)!

good things come

I've had some pain in my right heel for about a month. It's very painful to put any weight on it, at least initially, but then after I've walked for a bit, grinning and bearing it, the pain goes away (at least until the next time I get up to walk). I've been meaning to make an appointment with my podiatrist, but it's just one of those things I hadn't gotten around to. I've been living with the intermittent pain.

There is another health-related appointment that I needed to make, and since I have to get referrals from my doctor to see anyone else, I finally put a call into his office yesterday morning to ask for the two referrals. I was told that I had to come into the office, that he wouldn't do it over the phone. I began to fume. If I got there before 10:30 they could fit me in as a walk-in patient.

So in I walked. And waited. Two hours. It's not unusual to wait at my doctor's office, something about which I get rather annoyed. Sure, I'm happy to have a chance to read whatever book is in progress, but I really prefer to do my reading according to my own schedule. Everyone's time is valuable. I had things to do, puppies to feed, another person to meet. I mulled over the possibility that finding another doctor might be in order.

When I finally saw the doctor he was quick to point out to me that the need to see him for a referral was not his rule, but that of the insurance company. He's a gentle man, and he broke this to me in a nice way. My hostility level dropped by half. So. my foot? He found a tender spot and noted that it could be a number of things. The other matter? Ahhh, this is where it gets good.

I made reference to a matter about which we had spoken during our first appointment, was it last fall? Female stuff. He nodded. He probed a little, and then asked the bulls-eye question. I answered him. He then shared with me some information that I had heard before, but not in this context. It made sense, and I began to connect some dots. He shared some other things that I had not heard before. A light was beginning to dawn. He encouraged me on several fronts, affirmed some things, and in his gentle manner essentially handed me a road map toward some long-delayed healing.

I'm still not crazy about waiting, but I like this doctor because he knows what he's talking about. Takes time to talk. Asks and answers questions. Listens. I never get the sense that he's in a hurry. He never checks his watch. He sits down for conversation. He's the kind of doctor I think my father was, given his reputation with his patients (they loved him!). Time in the waiting room isn't the most fun thing, but the trade-off is so worth it. I appreciate having a doctor who can pierce the veil of medical stereotypes, but even more, what comes from his manner of care. My wounds, literal and figurative, are treated and healed. To be on the receiving end of that kind of care is worth the wait.