Lack of patience is merely an untamed mind, an unruly mind.

Our miniature blue spruce will take years to reach its full height of 8 feet maximum. Brian has been so patient. He wanted a tree to put Christmas lights on, yet it will be years before it will be able to be seen from the street (this winter it was totally under the snow).

I am sometimes impatient when I begin to meditate. It’s hard to allow my mind the time to slow down. Yet when I persist, I enter a state of being where impatience is totally absent. I am content to sit in my spot forever. At the end of the allotted time I DO get up. When that happens, I am able, more and more, to meditate with the eyes open, as I go about my day.

 Patience is the mother of will.  — G.I. Gurdjieff

So it was the little spruce that inspired my meditation this morning: Meditation isn’t a pastime; it’s a baseline.