Tag: patience

Hurry Is Beside The Point

Posted on May 20, 2016 by Jennifer Wolfe

Hurry is beside the point

Hurry is beside the point, useless, an obstruction.
The thing is to be attentively present.
To sit and wait is as important as to move.
Patience is as valuable as industry.
What is to be known is
always there.
When it reveals itself to you, or when you come upon it,
it is by chance.
The only condition is your being there and being
watchful.

~ Wendell Berry

I love how the Universe sends me these gentle reminders – just a few evenings ago I was biking home from teaching my home hospital student when I snapped this photo. The air was cool (we’ve had a string of days reaching into the 90s), the last bits of the sunset glowed over the trees, and, looking ahead, I saw these four letters: S-L-O-W. I listened, remaining diligent to my quest for picking up clues when they are presented to me. Somehow, the bike home was just a little more magical.

During the last few weeks of school there are so many emotions churning…students stressed and tired, teachers stressed and tired, the bittersweet anticipation of summer coupled with the sadness of leaving a community we so gently created all year long. I find myself breathing deeply, letting go, smiling more, and looking into the eyes of the children I’ve spent the last nine months with. I’m trying to be there for them, trying to be watchful to their emotions – trying to give them a safe space to be honest, to cry if they need to, and as one of my kids asked yesterday, to take a nap on the beanbags at lunch if they need to.

It is in these ordinary moments that we must remember to sit and wait, to practice patience and kindness, and to remember to trust the journey, wherever it may lead us.

The Universe sent this poem to me via First Sip.

primark

Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

Lily, The Perfect Prayer

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Jennifer Wolfe

The Lily

Night after night
darkness
enters the face
of the lily
which, lightly,
closes its five walls
around itself,
and its purse
of honey,
and its fragrance,
and is content
to stand there
in the garden,
not quite sleeping,
and, maybe,
saying in lily language
some small words
we can’t hear
even when there is no wind
anywhere,
its lips
are so secret,
its tongue
is so hidden –
or, maybe,
it says nothing at all
but just stands there
with the patience
of vegetables
and saints
until the whole earth has turned around
and the silver moon
becomes the golden sun –
as the lily absolutely knew it would,
which is itself, isn’t it,
the perfect prayer?

~ Mary Oliver

Oh, how I love Mary Oliver and her tremendous ability to weave language and nature and wisdom into a braid of enlightenment.

Her poetry always appears when I need it, whispering to me to pay attention – to be here, now.

Mary Oliver makes me think – makes me work for it. I slide her words around my mouth, swallowing bit after bit of understanding until suddenly, it makes perfect sense.

The ‘patience of vegetables and saints’ – yes, yes, yes.

The perfect prayer.

The realization that I, too, can “lightly” close myself, wind up my thoughts and pain and joy inside and just be content to be here, now, with them, whispering solitary prayers for peace and hope and grace and courage… and patience. Breath. Calm.

And the deep, deep knowing that all will be well.

The blooms spring up overnight, gracing me with their glory, their fragility, and their contentment to just be, to grow, to bloom “until the whole earth has turned around and the silver moon becomes the golden sun.”

One day at a time.

One prayer at a time.

Thank you, Mary Oliver.

Jennifer Wolfe

Persistence

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Jennifer Wolfe

Persistence: Leonard John Matthews

You probably have no idea how close I was to giving up. Seriously. Sometimes all the new-year-resolution-I’m-going-to-do-it-this-way-this-year talk backfires on me. It’s my stubborn streak, I know.

You’ve got to do it for the right reasons, that little voice kept whispering to me. Tell your stories. Use your voice. Share your words.

Sigh. Here she comes again. She’s like a two-year-old, always right in the middle of everything.

But why? my own little voice responded. Can’t you hear the defeat in my voice? What’s the point? It’s not like anyone is listening. I think I’m done.

That little voice never goes away. Who is she, anyway? Sometimes I wish she would dissolve into little snowflake shards, and leave me alone. Fizzle out. Melt away.

Does she talk to everyone this way?

And then just like that, the Universe responded. Shivers trickle down my spine. Seriously?

Thank you, she said one morning. I love reading your words. They make me smile. How do you do all that?

I wonder if my expression gave me away. Did she really know what I was thinking, how close I was?

Persistence. That’s who she is, anyway.

January prompt-a-day from write.alm – today’s prompt is persistence.