Grant me patience, Lord. But HURRY!

My dad has advised me to never pray for patience. His sage wisdom stems from the fact that one can only have patience when you are enduring something that requires you to be patient. Praying for patience will give you things to which you'll need to be patient.

To this, I say - well, great.

Not because I disagree with my father. It is because he is so very correct.

We will all have things through which to be patient. Someone somewhere is currently awaiting health news, maybe its biopsy results, the results of a COVID test, maybe news on a job promotion. We are all having our patience tested every day. Perhaps though, especially today, election day 2020.

So much is riding on the outcome of this election. Both sides want their candidate to win. Yet there can be only one winner.

Will our impatience change the outcome? No.

Will our anxiety make it easier to wait for the results? Hell no. It will do just the opposite.

Speaking of opposite, if you look up the word patience and seek its antonym (its opposite) you'll get the word, "impatience". Duh. Yet, I'll submit for the purpose of this discussion that it is not just that. If we attribute action to patience - being patient - then the opposite of patience is worry. 

Worrying is the worst way to spend your time.

It is an activity that moves you nowhere - like sitting in a rocking chair, rocking back and forth. It can be soothing, yes. However, there's lots of motion and absolutely no progress.

Worry steals not tomorrow's suffering but today's peace. Worry is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength. Worry does not ease tomorrow's sorrow, it steals today's joy. The bumper sticker wisdom idioms go on and on. I live under the same roof with an Olympic level worrier. I've witnessed how badly my mother in law succumbs to this practice of worry. Family members know that she's primarily worried for the health and safety of her sons. It makes sense that this is a concern - we can all understand the tendency to worry about a loved one. 

What I fail to understand is her inability to allow faith to take over. Only worry wins for her.

How sad.

Meditation and yoga practices can help us be present during times that try our patience and maybe present an opportunity to worry. When you distill the practice of meditation to its basics, you are controlling your own thoughts by focusing on something steady. For example, tapping in to the rhythm of your breath or noticing how your body feels in space can steady the mind in a calm place and keep it from running away with us to a place that is full of anxious feelings.

I listen to a daily (weekday) podcast hosted by CNN's chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta called "Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction". On today's episode, the featured guest was Jeff Warren, author and founder of the Consciousness Explorers Club. In addition to having written books on meditation, Warren guides meditations in the "Calm" app, which has been downloaded in record numbers recently. 

I loved hearing a meditation practice being offered in a mainstream "newsy" podcast - and I highly recommend checking out the brief meditation he led that can be done anywhere, standing in line at the polls, sitting at your desk at home or wherever you happen to be. 

It is called, Breath In, Breathe Out and can be found by clicking the link in the title or visiting https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/corona-virus  

Remember to just breathe.