Mirror, Mirror!

Of all of the lessons that I am learning from tea cups, tarot cards, horoscopes and Buddha quotin' yoga teachers, the one lesson that seems to constantly allude me, is patience. And while I will admit that I am WORLDS better than I used to be, (before living on Tico Time) I still find impatience rearing her ugly head up into the middle of my tranquil yogic life. What is it with instant gratification that we find so, well... gratifying? And not only is it my own impatience that I find to be frustrating, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING, bothers me more than the impatience of others! What is that saying about seeing clearly the faults in others that we don't like about ourselves? Or as a dear friend and old boss of mine used to say “Spot it? Got it!”

Oddly enough idle empty time or what I like to call “the art of doing jack-shit” has no ill effect on me. I can laze around all day, in a hammock, curled in bed with a book, watching complete seasons of a mini-series... you get the point, but just as soon as you add to that equation the idea that I am waiting for something the art is lost and all that is left is the frantic wondering of the when if and how the thing that I am waiting for is going to occur!

My friend Impatience is not pretty or well behaved. And she makes the poor habit of hanging out with the likes of Dependency, Addiction, Vanity, Jealousy, Judgment and Desire; the Seven Dwarfs of my personality. No matter how I strive the be the Fairest Behaved of All these hoodlums just wont seem to leave me alone. They have bullied me into nurturing, caring and feeding them, and they never fail to leave me in their wake with their mess to pick up. Not even my Prince Charming can rescue me from my short-comings, him being one of those frustrating impatient types, no- this is a job for the Evil Queen, ironically enough. Don't look so surprised, she's not really evil, just miss-understood. I mean really, all that “mirror mirror on the wall” stuff was just a metaphor for self reflection.

And so I take my cue from the Queen and look into the magic mirror, also known as, still water: We cannot see our reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see... ~Taoist Proverb.

The Queen teaches me that this waiting time is a blessing, it provides for me the opportunity to learn and grow, to know myself and the Seven Dwarfs better. Perhaps one day I may master the art of waiting, in the meantime I can at least let that trouble-making-no-friend-of-mine know that I am not allowed to play with her until she can behave better!