April is usually a busy month. We have our tax filings dateline to meet. The warm weather beckons us to do more outdoor projects and activities. The garden needs to be cared for, new projects to work on as the weather gets warmer. We try and catch up with some of the work that has lagged behind since the start of the year, when we were on a more restive mood then. On top of that we still have to cope with managing the daily household chores, and managing our careers. We learned to multi-task. My 3 year old granddaughter learned a new word, “multitasking”, a few months ago – which means she wants to use the ipad and eat her food at the same time. Of course, we had to correct her habit.

We have become accustomed to being very mechanical in getting multiple tasks done – achieving results with the limited amount of time and human capacity that we have. We somehow have become human machines. We have lost the art of “spending time” and “enjoying the moment of time”. We can be with another person, have a conversation with the person, or be working together with the person, and yet had not spent time or enjoy the moment of time with the person. External pressures, social and technological demands placed on us, are pushing each of us toward immediacy, rapidity, and spontaneity. We do not realize that we have become impatient – trying to speak or solve a problem without really thinking. The danger is that decisions made without that deep, critical thinking – a delayed response based on deep, meaningful contemplation, could have dire consequences to ourselves and others in the long run.

I learned that taking a ‘break’ is good for the soul. I usually like to start the morning to just be quiet and still – away from noises, from any thoughts of what I need to do for the day. It refreshes me for the day. It is in the quietness of being by myself this morning that I rediscover that patience is a wonderful virtue that I need to rediscover. In my contemplation, I also realized that that we so often misplaced ‘time’ when priorities seemed to be more about getting tasks done than spending time with people we care most in life. I have begun to rediscover the virtue of patience.

Here is a good article to read on The Art of Patience