We, as people in this day and age, have become accustomed to get things instantaneous. IM, email, web, text. Information has become almost instantaneous. The way we travel, the way we have meals, even our interactions with other people have become a form to get to an end.

Discussing life with friends about my new course of action with my life, one theme keep on reappearing, Anxiety. People want to get on with their lives. People have plans on what they want to do but few see what it will take. Be it marriage, a career, or just getting out of their parents home. We all want to do something and soon. But patience is a virtue. Something we all need, something that cannot just be found but have to learn and the only way to learn in to wait.

“All human wisdom is summed up in two words – wait and hope”
– Alexandre Dumas

“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow – that is patience.”

“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”
– Saint Augustine

“Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.”
– Brian Adams

In my past experiences I have seen my plans cut short in the nick of time. I have always had my life planned head at least a few months. But as everything, life isn’t always as one wants it. Things change, people change, people break up, you don’t get the job you want, etc.

What I gather from these experience and those around me is to start enjoying life for the sake of life. To live in the now and enjoy the time you have with others. Yes, we need to worry about the future, but not at the expense of today.

We all have dreams and that is a great thing, but we must not be anxious for things. We must pursue but not obsess. This is what I am slowly learning.

To that, I have decide to take a few classes at the local Community college. Before people jump to speculations and what not, I will be taking classes for fun, mainly personal interest like photography and typography. I have no long term plans. It seems a bit out of the ordinary that I have nothing to look forward to, but it reminds me to live in the moment. It reminds me that the journey and those that I meet are as, if not more, important than the destination. This is something life has tried to teach me in the last few years. Amazing that it had to take so much time and things to rattle my cage; to open my eyes to what I should have been doing for some time.

Reading some of my old notes/plans I came onto this quote and it really might be something I think of every day from now on.

“The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.”
– Norman Cousins

It kind of ties with another quote I came by earlier.

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
– Dalai Lama