Patience Really is a Virtue

(I wrote this blog on the plane last night, but couldn’t post until this morning.)

I learned the value of patience today. This is something I’ve always struggled with, in the worst way. I would get so impatient with the car in front of me for not driving fast enough, or with the people in line in front of me for taking too long to pay or having lots of questions. It didn’t matter what it was, I would get frustrated and impatient and complain to whomever I was texting or talking to at the moment.

I prayed to God, multiple times over the years, to guide me and provide me with patience. But it never really registered until just recently. And even more so today into this evening. And it didn’t hit me that I had actually showed extreme patience until I was using the restroom waiting for my plane to board.

You see, I’m on my way to Nashville, TN for the Hungry for Hope conferencewith my friend, Kelsey. We left Norfolk about 230 this afternoon and landed in Atlanta around 4. Well, we landed in the midst of a lightening storm (no joke, we could see the flashes as we were landing…it was actually kinda terrifying). So we sat on the plane for 2 hours while the storm raged on. They had closed the entire airport, basically, from any plane going in or out. Our connecting flight had been postponed from 535 to 750 so we had time to grab dinner and get a bit of work done.

As we were waiting, the departure time kept getting pushed further and further back. From 750 to 815 to 845 to 915 to 945 to 955 and finally to 1015. And the gate changed twice in the midst of all that…so twice we had to pack up all our stuff and move to the next gate, only to unpack all our stuff and keep working.

Not once, in this whole endeavor, did I complain. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m exhausted and I expressed that, but there wasn’t any disdain or anger or frustration over the fact that our flight had basically been delayed 5 hours!! We had an amazingly delicious dinner (if you’re ever in concourse B in Atlanta, definitely try Fly Burger. I had their holy guacamole burger with a lettuce bun and sweet potato tator tots…so good!!), and we both got some work done. I was able to work on something that I’ve been putting off for far too long because I didn’t have the time.

And truthfully, I was able to have a little bit of downtime and a nice afternoon with a good friend. How often do we actually get to have that?

And, like I said, it wasn’t until I was using the restroom for the last time before we boarded that I realized how different this experience was for me. I’ve been in this exact situation before and I’ve been frustrated and angry and annoyed and yes, impatient. But today, instead of all that negativity, I was grateful for the opportunity to spend time with a great friend and to accomplish some tasks that needed to be done. It was a nice change.

Sure, I could have gotten upset or irate or angry at the entire situation. But where would that have gotten me? Higher blood pressure, stressed out, probably wouldn’t have gotten any work done. And it’s not the airline’s fault. They can’t control the weather. And in listening to the various Delta employees, they were doing everything they could to get the planes in and get crews there to get people where they needed to go. Listening to others around us was interesting because yup, you guessed it. There were a *lot* of people who were completely unhappy and upset with Delta. Honestly, I’m just happy we arrived safely in Atlanta.

And now it’s 1105 and I’m writing this as we’re flying to Nashville. I’m truly blessed to have the opportunity to be able to make trips like this and to further my education and experiences as a health coach. I can’t wait to tell you all about it when I get home!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and realize that not everything is going to go as planned. And that it’s in how you handle it that makes you (or breaks you). I’m happy this experience didn’t break me :-)

With love and wellness,
Whitney