This might be the blog no one wants to read. Patience is not my favourite word, but something I’ve had to practice over and over again.
I find it a bit of a joke when we talk about Patients and Patience. The two go hand in hand, for often being a patient requires a lot of patience.
I was inspired to write about patience today after reading the Henri Nouwen devotion today which truly spoke to me. He gives this amazing quote:
The mother of expectation is patience.
He also quotes the French author Simon Weil who writes “Waiting patiently is the foundation of the spiritual life.”
The meaning of patience is “to suffer”. No wonder we avoid this like the plague. Now there is an idiom, an interesting way we use our language. “Like the plague” has a very present context and meaning.
We have been suffering, collectively, albeit in very different ways. This plague has affected us all. Some very personally, as they have experienced Covid first hand, either living through the virus, or watching their loved ones suffer, or even die. We grieve with them.
For others, it has manifested itself as a loss of freedom, and for some great economic and financial hardship. Patience has not always manifested itself in my own heart, and I, like most of us, I just long for it to be over.
It was a year ago we were shocked into this new reality, glued to the news with every increasing anxiety. We have ridden the waves, and it seems at this anniversary we are awakening from a long nightmare which has been our reality. And yet…
We are told to wait. To wait patiently. This isn’t easy.
I felt that reality check yesterday as I talked to some of the nurses I admire and work with at the hospital. There is a sense that we need to be patient, to be careful and not rush into what we would say is our freedom to live without Covid restraints.
The virus lives on, and still is a threat. I believe that we have been so blessed to have the best of medical professionals and scientists who are learning and researching but have the best knowledge and resources to help us all.
I become weary of those who put us all at risk when they don’t follow the rules. Because, it affects us all. Plagues are not a new thing, but it is new to our generation. Vaccinations are not new either, and while anything comes with risk, they have proved to be life-saving over and over again. I am grateful for vaccinations.
I realize this has become a bit of an opinion piece, but I know many agree and are concerned as I. Can we be patient? Can we show care and love by showing restraint?
Many are remembering today, on this significant anniversary of a year of pandemic and plague. We remember all those who have died. We think of the significant sacrifice and courage of health care workers. We think of leaders all over the world, making some of the most difficult decisions of their lives. We think of those who have suffered, of those who have lost dear family and friends because of the virus.
We pray for the pandemic to end. We pray for those who suffer, even now. We pray for the gift of patience, as we wait.
Patience
