Of Wisdom and Patience...

Today I had a nice conversation with an old friend-teacher of mine. Due to his request for anonymity (since my blog is so widely read and popular- sheesh), I shall refer to him as the "Wise One".

Wise One: I dunno if this will be of any help - there was one thing I consciously did a couple of years back. I took the Art of Living course - and I'm not asking u to take that course - but what the course essentially taught me was that I can certainly make things around me slow down - if and when i wanted to , with a little practice. It's like the example u gave me about looking but not seeing...

Me: yup thats me... looking but not seeing

Wise One: Today, I have the time to see a sunset and a sunrise - cliched as it may seem.

Me: no it's actually not... Just the other day, I was awake when the sun came up and I realized that I could count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times I've actually watched a sunrise and it's funny 'cus its so breathtaking... and I wondered why I've never made an attempt to do it more often.

Wise One: So find ways to slow down and then u will see rather than just look. Meditation is only one method. Anything that induces patience would be a good idea.

Me: Impatience is something I've been widely accused of. But there is one thing I've come to realize. Patience comes automatically with age. Perhaps that is why pple reach what we call "wisdom" and "serenity" in old age. They just acquire the patience... and i guess u r saying that u can learn ways to acquire that before u hit ur 50s.

Wise One: Absolutely. What's the point of patience and maturity after 50 anyways? Get the same at 30 and that'll make a huge difference!

Me: It's funny how I've noticed these little changes in myself... like the fact that I don't speed like I used to. I just don't want to. Lately, it's become less about getting there and more about enjoying the ride. That's one way too that this personal tragedy of mine has helped. Things used to bother me so much before.. any injustice... I would fume so much I could scarcely breathe. But now Alhamdulillah nothing bothers me much. I feel like - after going through that, aint no little thing gonna bother me no more.

Wise One: You can look at what u went through as injustice or...

Me: Please dont say "or a learning curve"

Wise One: or u can think of it as being offered the chance to be out of it before the inustice happened.

Me: oh absolutely. I think about that all the time. Lately I've been thinking like that more often. Last weekend, a car bumped into me from behind and the jolt gave me a backache. And I realized that I could either think of it as a bad day wherein some idiot hit my car and gave me one more pain to deal with... or the lucky day that i got out of an accident with nothing more than a hole in my bumper and a small little backache. And I was joking abt the "learning curve". It's one of those phrases that is always true and hence, so trite.

Wise One: hmm... so one learns through one's bumps, aches and pains

Me: Yes.. but if only wisdom could be a permanently attained state of mind. For me it's just brief flashes of clarity followed by "damn, shit, sucks!"

Wise One: Well thats how it starts - then it becomes permanent.

We'll see how that goes...