RevGals Friday Five: Patience or Pigheadedness

(Photo of a tree on the rim of the Grand Canyon, from the files of Mompriest, a true sign of tenacity or maybe patience)

Sally over at RevGals is growing a vegetable garden and celebrating the graduation of three of her children from college, both of which she thinks have required a certain amount of patience and some pigheadedness for the school completion. She offers this Friday Five Meme as a result:

1. Is patience a virtue you possess? If it is then does it come naturally, if not how do you/ did you work at it? I remember a friend of mine talking about her young children and their efforts to get their way - dawdling, distracted, temper tantrums, etc. She said, I can always wait them out and outlast them, they won't wear me down just to get their way....or something like that. I do not have that kind of patience. After a time I'd just scoop my kids up and say, "Off we go!" or get angry, or sometimes give in (not my best parenting response). I do practice having patience and waiting and being mindful. I think I go in spurts of action and then non-action, of impatience and then patience. Almost always though this is an internal process for me, what I am actually doing might look very different.



2. Being patient with ourselves can be a huge challenge, we are often our own worst critics; is there anything you need to be patient with yourself with at the moment? Yes. I am trying to lose a little weight, which seems to be a huge effort for the first time ever. I watch my intake and exercise a lot and increase my metabolism, but with very little response. I am however getting into shape even if I'm not losing much weight. I look better even if I'm not "smaller". At 53 it's a tough process. I am also in a job search and that definitely requires significant patience, reflection, and self examination.


3. Are you the kind of person who can/ will persist with a difficult task? How much of this is personality related? I can be tenacious and stick to it. I can also let it go when it seems to be a lost cause. Sometimes I may let things go pre-emtively if it feels like there is too much resistance, but that depends. Mostly I have a high degree of perseverance under challenge and work hard to move through it.


4. Can you spot when persistence turns into pig-headed-ness, or do you never get there? On occasion I have indeed become pig-headed, it's what helped me earn a dual-degree with two young kids. Some think I was pig-headed in my desire to do some healthy things at a place that did not want to look at the unhealthiness and make better choices. That was a place where I eventually had to let go.


5. Post a song or a poem that chills you out and helps you to re-group, re-focus and carry on? For many years I would get a massage and use the music from American Indian Flutist, Carlos Nakai. His music definitely chills me in the best of ways. Now I take a yoga class or do one of my yoga CD's when I need to chill and focus. I also practice silent prayer/mediation for 40 minutes a day. I find my center in silence.


Bonus, a picture or a photo that speaks to you of patience or persistence....

These tress live on the top of the Rockies, 9,600 feet up. Although it was early May when I took this photo it was still 30 degrees, cold, windy, and snowing. The represent a great deal of patience and tenacity waiting for summer, for warmth, for sun. They also have a great deal of strength to survive the harsh elements at this altitude.