Patience and a Drink of Water

Two Leaves

A sweet potato - or was it a yam sat on my kitchen counter patiently waiting it’s turn for…..it sprouted. Three long sprouts standing at attention and, I’m sure, staring at me. I finally cut out the potato, planted it in a pot, in soil….some time in April. I was ready to throw it out but each day decided to give it one more day. Two weeks ago I saw a tiny green shoot that opened into a real leaf. I set the pot outside to get the sun and the shade and some good rain water. In the last two days, in two very hot days, two more leaves have sprouted. The new little one is so tiny it is easy to miss, but by tomorrow I expect to see another full leaf. Sweet potato plants are really quite lovely.

Three Leaves: look closely!

“Why is patience so important?”

“Because it makes us pay attention.”

~ Paul Coelho, author

When I Sit Down to Write

When I sit down to write 

it is seldom in the same place. 

Each time of day has 

it’s own nook. 

As long as there is 

pen and paper, 

or, as in this missive, 

my laptop, my fingers poised, 

I am ready to write. 

When I sit down to write, 

my thoughts are jumbled 

or there may be a spot 

on the wall that reminds me 

of some bit of philosophy, 

or maybe a blank white page 

~ silent and patient.

So I doodle, 

or read 

a bit of poetry, 

a novel 

or whatever is near at hand

Along the way, 

some fanciful thought 

floats across the page

when I sit down to write.

“Your intuition knows what to write so get out of the way.”

~ Ray Bradbury

One Blade of Grass

From morning til night, 

without thought, 

I accept the small things.

Should I disagree with how 

long it takes the kettle to boil, 

I grumble and walk away ~ 

find something else to do while 

I wait for seconds to pass.

With grander issues like

homelessness, the price of gas

or the state of the world 

I may turn my back or 

be tormented by anger 

and frustration. I may walk away, 

or I may find the one thing 

within circles where I am

to make this life better 

while the kettle boils.

“If you restore balance in your own self, you will be 

contributing immensely to the healing of the world.”

~ Deepak Chopra

Breathe

Patience is a lovely practice. 

It lets me breathe. 

See and hear life around me. 

Quiets all the busy thinking 

of the chattering should’s 

and shouldn’t have’s 

rolling through

my mind while I wait for 

anything, something, everything.

It let’s me breathe in life around me;

hear all the life around me.

Patience is a lovely practice.

“Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen 

in a different order than the one you have in your mind.”

~ David G. Allen, author

Up for the Challenge ~ ACCEPTANCE ~ Theme for April 2026

Arguments seldom…

Coming into…

Caring for…

Excitement rolls…

Patience is…

Temptation to…

A day without…

Needing a…

Comfort and …

Entering life…

“I can be changed by what happens to me. 

But I refuse to be reduced by it.’

~ Maya Angelou

Just Chatting

Overtures toward the woman 

in line at the grocery store 

are to commiserate about 

the length of the line up, 

or the weather 

or a shallow bit of cliché 

to pass the time and feel at ease 

even though 

the man behind grumbles 

about the lack of staff 

or about the infernal machines 

at the self check out. 

In all of this, a thought 

drifts through my mind: 

‘I’m glad we chatted and 

that we’ll have food to take home 

to feed our families.’

 

It’s my turn at the till. 

I set my tomatoes, milk and eggs 

on the conveyor belt, 

pay for my groceries, 

say my good byes to people 

I’ll never see again and return home. 

“Two things define you: your patience when you have nothing 

and your attitude when you have everything,”

~ George Bernard Shaw

Here to Stay

January, 2024

I’ve waited patiently for the snow. 

We’ve had a skiff here and there, 

but nothing that settled in to stay 

‘Look what I brought you! It’s winter!’ 

Well, winter’s here loud and clear. 

Except the gentle silence of snow 

falling through still air has been 

missing. The air has glistened with
frantic snowflakes waved about, 

sent spinning through bare branches,

finding shelter on any corner or 

fence line that would suffice.

I’ve waited patiently for the snow. 

We’ve had big blow with snowbanks

of crisp white that have settled in to stay.

“And finally Winter, with its bitin’, whinin’ wind, 

and all the land will be mantled with snow”

~ Roy Bean, Judge

(1825 - 1903)

A Silent Voice

 Standing still slowly,

believing that movement rises

from beneath the surface

“You have to believe. Otherwise, it will never happen.”

~ Neil Gaiman

Textured Life

It is very simple ~ this tree that is younger than ancient elms gracing our streets, years older than saplings planted 

in the spring. Scars and bumps show the 

life of a tree on a city street. Not unlike our own scars and bumps from life’s 

scratches, tears and bruises; yet we each still stand and keep living at a pace we have chosen or has been chosen for us.

“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience.”

~ Hal Borland, Countryman: A Summer of Relief

Virtue

April 2009 Victoria, B.C.

Spring arrives in another land 

in a froth of pink and white

while in other lands 

patience is a virtue.

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

~ A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Picking up the Threads

increasingly restless, 

sometimes anxious.

growing impatience with

what’s next?

In time, family visits by telephone, text, messaging 

and other electronic media have filled many days!

family relationships, growing thin for decades, 

becoming stronger with 

new friendships blossoming. 

I was frightened, insecure and driven in 2020.

purposely stepping back so as not to become a thorn 

Today, I am grateful and still committed to designing

a good and full life with much more to look forward to.

“A gentle heart is tied with an easy thread.”

~ George Herbert