Those of you
who have read me for awhile know that I'm big on this patience thing, even though
patience is the least of my virtues. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if it's
on my list at all, but I keep working at it, and perseverance is part of
patience, even if it only begins with the same letter.
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When
things get tough and frustrating, I try to put my mind, and my attitude, in a
beautiful, serene place. Homeland 2,
from the Homeland series, by Steve Henderson.
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Speaking of
perseverance, I recently finished knitting the most difficult socks I have ever
encountered, so frustrating that 1) I contemplated giving up knitting (not
really, truly, at the base of my soul, but yelling it aloud at the socks made
me feel better) and 2) I found any possible excuse to avoid the project, to the
point that the bathroom toilets were very clean indeed. (For the full story,
check out The
Socks from Hell at my Middle
Aged Plague site.)
But you know
what? I finished them, slipped them on my feet, walked around in them, and
admired -- yes, admired -- their beauty, despite their many, many mistakes.
And in the
process I accomplished several things:
1) I worked through the problems -- and
there were a lot of them.
2) I didn't give up. (Don't underestimate
this one -- if you continuously toss a painting canvas aside mid-way through and start
over anew, without conquering what drove you nuts in the first place, you will
be continuously tossing art canvases aside mid-way through and never figuring out where you went wrong with your painting techniques.)
3) I identified mistakes and fixed some --
the glaring ones that I kept trying to pretend I didn't see.
4) I identified mistakes and didn't fix
others -- the ones that weren't so bad that they couldn't harmoniously
coexist with me.
5) I became a bit more patient. Amazing.
--Carolyn