How to be Patient in the Gap

To be an artist means not to compute or count; it means to ripen as the tree, which does not force its sap, but stand unshaken in the storms of spring with no fear that summer might not follow. It will come regardless. But it comes only to those who live as though eternity stretches before them, carefree, silent, and endless. I learn it daily, learn it with many pains, for which I am grateful: Patience is all!

— Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, “The Third Letter”

Patience is not a quality easily grasped, which may be a reason it doesn’t head the list of the fruit of the Spirit. Other qualities are needed first: love, joy, peace. They are the field in which patience can grow. They allow a person to be patient, even when everything inside of her screams, Right now!

Patience, however, does have to be cultivated. It doesn’t just pop out of the ground nor does it do well if left to languish. The quality needs weeding, water, and sunshine. It requires constant vigil against rabbits, squirrels, and other critters determined to eat it.

Once harvested, it still requires care. Attention must be given. It is a lesson learned daily, sometimes with “many pains.” It is not a quality to be counted. It isn’t like a pea pod surrendering its peas. It it something that ripens as a tree does, steadily, year after year.

Some years may not produce as much growth as others. That’s all right. The key is knowing and believing growth is still occurring. Both the thin and thick growth rings have their place. All are essential. They point to a trajectory in which the losses and failures and frustrations and, yes, the successes and accolades are not counted like so many beads on a string. They are the storms through which one passes to become a life-giving tree, one that “does not force its sap” but stands “carefree, silent, and endless.” It grows and provides shade for the rabbits and nests for the squirrels and blue jays.

To be patient in the gap requires having that understanding. One does not become a tree overnight. It only comes through great care, persistence, and patience.

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Image: Vince Alongi (Creative Commons)