This is The Nooner, a (very short) daily newsletter slash podcast that has its very own section within Dispatches from Inner Space.
To see the first post, which doubles as an explainer, click here.
Also a quick reminder that you can listen to the podcast version of each post wherever you listen to podcasts.
Until recently, I thought of patience as suffering in silence.
Patience meant accepting the torture that comes with waiting, and enduring it with a stiff upper lip.
I mean how else are we to interpret the phrase “patiently waiting?”
But I’ve come to understand that patience is not the virtue of being able to suffer courageously, and without complaint. Patience is the virtue of being able to refocus your attention one what you have, rather than what you don’t.
It’s not that the desire for a thing goes away. Especially in the case of illness, disaster, or financial instability. You’re not going to stop wanting health, safety, and the comfort of knowing you can support your family.
But patience is the ability to set aside the thing you want RIGHT NOW because it’s distracting you from what you already have RIGHT NOW.
Sometimes that’s a huge, orange-tinted moon just touching the tops of the trees. Sometimes it’s the browned butter in a freshly baked cookie. Sometimes it’s the way a toddler dramatically covers her mouth when she throws a tantrum.
Sometimes it’s the dishes, and the satisfaction of clearing the sink one spoon, one plate, one bowl at a time.
And sometimes, often, it’s that friend who really just needs someone to listen, who really just needs to hear that it’s going to be OK.
That last is the killer app. There really is no better way to forget the pain of an unfulfilled need than by addressing someone else’s.
You’re probably doing patience wrong