“The strongest of all warriors are these two, time and patience.” Leo Tolstoy
Recently, I was reminded what a friend had shared with me at one time in my life’s journey . . . sometimes to win the war, you have to loose a battle exercising a great deal of restraint, contemplation, observation and patience. In retrospect, when we can distance ourselves from the outcome of most situations, this thought holds quite true on many levels for a myriad of reasons. Our thoughts set up a chain reaction of events usually leading to a materialization of behavior. Within our perception of time, we believe we have had some control over our lives and circumstances, only to realize in retrospect this may not be the case.
Once we come to terms with the events of our lives that happened for the continuing process of our growth, strength, acceptance, courage, wisdom and essence of spirit. . . we embrace the words of Emerson with a greater understanding, “What lies beyond us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Our choices give us so much information at any given time, and once we detach from the outcome, we free ourselves from the sense of failure.
At times, we live our lives in a frenzied sense of urgency forgetting the substantive essence of why we are here. We have learned or are presently in the process of learning . . . the accumulation of titles, awards, degrees, memberships, positions, or just things etc., leave us ultimately with a sense of emptiness that doesn’t seem to be filled over time.
Without warning, we awaken one day taking stock of our life for whatever reason . . . sometimes unknown to us in the moment, and realize through time and patience the substance in the words of Einstein . . . “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” JLR