Patience? Who Needs Patience?

You’d think that once a fella reaches “retirement” age, he’d pretty much have his act together and all his ducks in a row. Such a person would have spent many years getting educated (formally or in the school of hard knocks), living life, cherishing loved ones, mastering a career, and basically figuring things out. This iconic personage would also be the epitome of wisdom, wit, humor, and (shudder, dare I say it) – patience!

But, alas, life doesn’t always lead us where we thought we were going, nor do we wind up where we imagined we’d want to be. And, when we look around us and don’t see what we expected, it’s easy to get frustrated, even when our age is beyond “middle.” If, at this age, our imaginary fella is still working to get life sorted out, as the end of life draws ever nearer, a vile trait often makes itself known as the ugly, raised head of impatience.

Many years ago, cruising the River Walk in San Antonio, I visited one of the riverside shops—a typical tourist town tourist trap type of shop, filled with beautiful, expensive, and totally unnecessary jim-crackies, whatnots, and gizmos. That particular day, though, the shop had a sculptor in the shop, and several of his bronzed statues were on display. Rather than simply walking around and trying to talk people into buying his work, he was actually modeling a new statue in clay. Once completed, I suspect the process would be that it would somehow end up cast in bronze.

He was working on a cowboy twirling a lasso as he rode a horse. The statue was about three or four feet in height. It was amazing in its detail. I spent probably twenty minutes walking through the store, circling around to marvel at his dexterity. Such skill has always amazed me, especially since I could no more fashion such a thing than I could jump over the moon.

During the time I observed him working, he focused solely on the tip of a boot toe on one foot of the cowboy. From my vantage point, it looked perfectly like a boot. But, time and again, the artist would scrape the front portion of the boot off, then remodel it again. After seeing this process repeat perhaps four or five times, I asked him, “Where do you find the patience to do that over and over?”

His response was one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard. “It doesn’t take any patience at all when you understand that there is a particular outcome you want, and that you are willing to do whatever it takes to create that result.”

My cousin used to say, “The problem with not knowing where you’re going is that you never know when you get there.” The artist knew where he was going, and didn’t have any expectations of when he’d get there. He just knew that when his hands fashioned a clay representation of the image he had in his head, he would be finished—and not before.

Patience is something that is easy to accomplish when we first have a clear idea of where we’re going. Next we need a good roadmap of how to get there, and it can help to talk to others who have done what we’re hoping to do. Finally, constantly comparing our results to our roadmap and expectations can keep us motivated and moving in the right direction.

Patience? Who needs patience?