Be a Genius...Be Patient! by Steve Goodier © 2004
Is patience difficult for you? A man in Los Angeles, California was arrested for negligent discharge of a weapon after shooting his toilet bowl five times with a 38 caliber handgun. He claims that he just got upset. He couldn't take it any longer. His daughter had flushed a hairbrush earlier in the day and clogged the pipes. So he shot the offending toilet. I have no word on the toilet's condition, but the man's patience was long gone.I once learned a valuable lesson about patience. I came across a box turtle while walking home one day. I brought him home to examine a little more closely. My intention was to keep him for a few hours and let him go.
I put the turtle down and waited for him to come out of his shell. He didn't. I pulled up a chair and waited some more. He didn't budge. I sang to the turtle. Still no appearance. I told turtle stories. I coaxed him with food. But nothing worked.
Finally, I had to leave. So I barricaded the porch in case the turtle decided to leave, too. After all, I still hadn't gotten a closer look.
The turtle decided he had had enough. When I returned, the porch was empty. He apparently didn't think much of my barricade.
I learned a valuable lesson from that turtle. He just bided his time and waited. He wasn't much interested in food, songs or stories. He only wanted me to go away. So he patiently waited until I left. Then he left, too.
It's been well said: “Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius.” Be a genius. Be patient.
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)“Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.”
- Leonardo da Vinci, painter, engineer, musician, and scientist (1452-1519)“Have patience! In time, even grass becomes milk.”
- Charan Singh, mystic (1916-1990)God's way of answering the Christian's prayer for more patience, experience, hope, and love often is to put him into the furnace of affliction.
- Richard Cecil“Patience is also a form of action.”
- Auguste Rodin, sculptor (1840-1917)
