Nature Does Not Hurry…
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” —Lao Tzu
Do you feel the tug of responsibility and expectation to get tasks completed before the end of the year? Or are you overwhelmed with to-do’s for your Christmas, Hanukkah, or other season of light celebrations?
Pause. Take a deep breath. Now imagine everything that needs to be accomplished will be. Nature does not hurry…
It’s not easy to go against the rush at this time of year; yet, what rewards might await you in the present moment when you do so? From a sky full of stars to a tender smile shared between loved ones, there are gifts waiting if only we slow down enough to notice them.
May you be blessed with the courage to slow down through these remaining days of 2022 and the faith to know what needs to happen this year will.
Willingness to Wait
“Our willingness to wait reveals the value we place on what we’re waiting for.”
—Charles Stanley
Rivers Know This
“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”
– A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh)
Woman, Waiting
Except that it is not visible
to the naked eye
all the ways
she has ceased to wait.
They cannot see in her
that her waiting carries no idleness,
no passiveness.
She is not resigned,
awaiting the delivery
of her sealed fate.
It has little to do with patience.
Her waiting has not been
a biding of time
but an abiding in time,
dwelling,
making herself at home.
She has taken every last frayed end,
knotted it;
every loose thread,
woven it;
every jagged edge,
worn it smooth;
every ragged scrap,
stitched it up.
This woman, waiting,
is the wise maiden with oil in plenty,
the grown woman who knows
the time of birthing,
the aged crone who feels in her flesh
the measure of her days.
It cannot be seen in her
all the ways she is ready.
But soon,
in the fullness of time,
she will cry out
and be delivered.
—© Jan L. Richardson from Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas.
What are you waiting for today?
