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Motivational Meditation Monday: Keep Calm and Have Patience

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Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character. – Heraclitus 

Meditation:

I was in a meeting the other day thinking about all the things I don’t have. I wasn’t in a negative place, but did however contemplate the same old question that many of us have in recovery to any number of ideas, “when?” Within a matter of moments a man interrupted my thoughts and said “Be patient, good things come to those who wait.” This was the first time I actually thought about that statement. We may hear it, but seldom do we really think about what it actually means. What does it mean to be patient and how does one remain patient after making the decision to do it in the first place?

Patience can be tricky for most people, especially addicts and alcoholics. We want to feel good, and we want to feel it now. We lose patience in line at the store, waiting for a red light, listening to the person share well over 5 minutes in a meeting; anyone can increase the list where their patience was pushed. When we do have patience though, we see how our Higher Power actually works in our lives and we truly see how things just seem to fall into place. We aren’t fighting anyone or even fighting time, we just are. We aren’t reliving the past and we aren’t in fear of the wreckage of the future, we are happy in the present moment.

Recovery is a journey and more importantly, it's life itself. Do we ever stop and wonder where we are rushing to? “I just want a year sober” is a statement I hear a lot, but why are we rushing our years away? Why not just stay in the moment, in today. Allow our Higher Power to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves; we may actually miss something if we aren’t patient. We may miss a great message if we are too busy judging that long speaker, the best sunset ever if we forget to look while we are at that red light, or worse, we may be the last frustrated memory to that little old lady who is in front of us in line. When we aren’t patient, we not only affect our own recovery and path, but we also affect those around us. Who we are can be judged based on our patience with life, situations, and others. Our patience, or lack there of, will define our character. There is no rush in recovery, how we treat ourselves and others depends on our character and our patience.  Do not waste time being impatient, you are missing the message. More importantly, you may be missing on carrying the message to others.

Written By: Recovery Gal




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