Luckily, Lent – and therefore my efforts to give up being impatient – begins on Ash Wednesday because yesterday was Trying. That is the most patient word I can think of to describe it.
First, number three son - already a tricky boy and already the difficult age of four – was poorly with ongoing nausea. Luckily/unluckily, depending on your point of view (and I’m not saying which one mine was), he was not so ill as to be in bed, sleeping it off quietly, but rather was whining about how poorly he felt, how his tummy hurt and how he just had to STOP BREATHING IN AND OUT. Also WHY DOESN’T HE HAVE MORE LEGO?
I know poppet, let’s lie you down sweetheart so you can stop breathing in and out, I could be heard voicing over and over, in a vain attempt to ameliorate everything about him. Or for him, if I were a better mother.
Not content with having to deal with one nasty virus, I then had a second patient when my laptop contracted a different, but equally nasty virus. On the afternoon I had a deadline. So my plans to stuff the children silly with pancakes and hope they pass the afternoon in a semi-coma in front of their favourite film as a special half term treat as we couldn’t go out due to Four being sick, worked. But then my laptop didn’t.
Yes, my pre-Lenten attempts at patience were sorely tested yesterday.
But I did it. I remained calm and patient. Despite cancelled plans, missed deadlines, dead computers, sick children, inclement weather and cabin fever. I can congratulate myself that I can do it, can be patient, not shout, not boss everyone silly to get out the door on time, not be irritated by life’s ongoing, niggling, annoying challenges.
So now Lent is actually here I’ve got no chance have I?
Photo: lepiaf.geo
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