Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
Photo by Julien L on Unsplash
Not in the wildest of my dreams did I think that a wait at the doctor’s office would spark the idea for an article.
After reaching on time, it took 50 minutes until I was seen. No points for guessing, it was a test of my patience because I had gone there without eating breakfast! On the brighter side, I have ended up sharing my two cents on patience!
When my child was a five-year-old, it was not easy to teach him what patience meant. My husband suggested that I draw some pictures and explain them to him in the form of a story. I made a sketch of a boy waiting at a bus stop. The sketch was pretty pathetic, but my purpose was served. I succeeded in driving home the message that the kid had to wait without complaining until the bus arrived. Thereafter, my little boy started understanding that patience means “wait”!
At 27, he plays a trick on me with the tables being turned. When I tell him to hurry up and stop dilly-dallying while doing his chores, he quotes me: “‘Patience means ‘wait’.’ Didn’t you teach me that?”
As much as we keep talking about how important it is to be patient, is it easy? I explored a few scenarios.
There is immense joy in celebrating your child’s birthday, but there are downsides too. Your boy or girl can do a bunch of the most annoying things on that special day, yet they can get away with the famous one-liner: “At least don’t shout at me on my birthday!” Now, what else can you do besides taking a long, deep breath and calming down?
There can be no worse timing to having a tiff with your spouse than prior to having guests at home or just when you are about to visit someone else’s place. At that moment, you feel like you have your “bitter half” and not your better half next to you. In spite of wanting to put forward your point of view, you cannot. The most needed virtue is undoubtedly patience because you have to be on your best manners and pretend that all is well!
Yes, sharing is caring! Social media has enabled that more than ever. But it does get on to your nerves when sharing turns to spamming. Each and every social media account of yours is inundated with dozens of posts that give life lessons, some of them being shared more than once! Can you rant about this and hit the unpopularity charts by telling the sender that you would rather read a self-help book? I advise that you do not!
You are in a gathering, and you know for sure that the smart individual in the room who’s trying to impress the audience is lying through his or her teeth. Well you still need to be patient and not call out that person.
After navigating through these varied scenarios, it feels that imbibing patience into your daily routine is indeed a Herculean task! But then, I cannot look around me with a jaundiced eye and have such a cynical perspective because the sweeter side is visible too!
To be patient for nine long months till I held my baby boy in my arms and heard his first cry was a wonderful feeling. It was and still is a blessed experience!
I have seen those strong, determined individuals calmly undergoing long periods of treatment for their illnesses because they have believed that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Their patience has taught me positivity and made me understand that trials and tribulations need to be handled with courage and fortitude.
A beautiful example of patience is right in my family, and I see that in my mother She has always endured pain and embraced pleasure with equal acceptance. It warmed my heart when I happened to see her maintaining her composure when my father passed away. After losing her husband of 54 years, she has managed to walk along the path of life with grace and dignity. She shows her strength, lest the rest of the family falter and fall.
So if I look at this world through the lens of optimism, I would inevitably conclude that we ought to be patient. The canvas of our existence is way too large to fret and complain about trivial things that we will perhaps not even remember after a certain point of time. A quote from Stephanie Danler, the author of New York Times bestseller Sweetbitter, beautifully summarizes: “A certain connoisseurship of taste, a mark of how you deal with the world, is the ability to relish the bitter, to crave it even, the way you do the sweet.”
Being able to follow this philosophy will help one to face storms and calm with the same ease although there is a catch to what I am sharing. Preaching, as always, is easier than practicing. This applies to most human beings, and I include myself in this category. However, my wish is to increase my capacity for patience. Or let me rephrase it: I will strive not to be impatiently patient!
Rashmi Bora Das is a freelance writer settled in the suburbs of Atlanta. She has a master’s degree in English from India, and a second master’s in Public Administration from the University of read more...
This post has published with none or minimal editorial intervention. Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
Please enter your email address