Not Quite Patient
Patience is a wonderful thing. So is impatience.
I am willing to wait a long time for what I really want.
I didn’t marry until I was forty. And as I approach my twentieth anniversary, I know it was definitely worth the wait.
So why do I endorse impatience too?
Because when you impatiently fill your waiting time with other stuff, that other stuff can be amazing.
I’m too impatient to JUST WAIT. I waited for the right guy, but in the meantime I didn’t sit around. I got a really good education, an established career, and a decent nest egg.
I have a manuscript patiently waiting for the right agent or publisher to recognize its worth. But impatiently, I have filled my time writing little blogposts that have unexpectedly provided me with more joy (and new friends) than I could have ever imagined.
I believe in buying fabulous clothes for my current body while still trying to lose more weight. I believe in emphasizing my eye makeup while waiting for a bad haircut to grow out. And most of all, I believe in rocking with my girlfriends while patiently waiting for the slow number that may coax my husband out onto the dance floor.
This Spring I planted a little stick of an apple tree. I will have to wait for years to see my tree give me baskets of delectable fruit. I’m patient. I went to my favorite orchard this fall and picked a bushel of fine luscious apples.
But my little tree was impatient. It produced one fine luscious apple.
Way to go, tree!
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Note: This piece was created for the website Vision and Verb (http://www.visionandverb.com), a network of women from around the world who contribute their images and ideas.
notquiteold 
Awesome post and picture!! So glad I found you! Thanks for being patient and sharing with us!
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hmmm…this reminds me of the following story by Herman Rosenblat: “The Girl with the Apple”. A love story of patience. Hooray for your apple tree. That is one thing I miss about being in the South. No apple trees. My mother had one in her yard growing up in WA state. We had one on campus going to MSU, and our neighbor had one when lived in NJ.
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I need to look into that story…
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Nurturing a husband, a novel a blog and an apple tree — and all are productive. Way to go — you are amazing!
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Good for you!
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That little itty-bitty tree rewarded you for your patience. What a sweet post!
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This is a great post: filled with good messages!
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Wow…didn’t you just hit it on the head! Fabulous.
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Charming!
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Be thankful you don’t have deer to steal your precious gift. I can’t believe that skinny stalk produced that fine looking apple.
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We have lots of deer…that’s why there’s fencing around my little sapling.
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A beautiful gift–to you the apple and to us the story of your apple! Have I told you lately that I adore your blog??? 🙂
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Thanks!
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Wonderful post as usual. Right to the point which suits me well since I tend to be very impatient!
I confessed to my husband the other day that I am not a patient person anymore; in fact, I said if I had this level of impatience years ago, I never would have put up with him! Now 41 years later, I am happily reaping the rewards of my patience! I love that man like crazy! STILL!
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Uh, patience. This is lovely – so well written. I am also a believer that “good things come to those who wait.”
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Everything is out there if you know how to find it, and have the patience. I don’t and haven’t, but that’s my problem.
Nice, a good read.
DS
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Interesting take. Thanks for sharing this post. Impatience just means there’s something out there we’re looking forward to that can’t get here soon enough, while we realize that we can’t hurry it; it’ll come along in it’s own time. Nothing wrong with that!
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Perfect! Your writing brightens my mornings.
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This is a beautiful post – and hearing about the one apple made me smile! What was this one apple’s fate? Did you munch on it right away, or use it to make something?
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One word: Husband.
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I got a rock tumbler for Christmas went I was a little kid. There’s a toy that requires patience. You put some rocks in a can with some water and powder stuff, and then you have to wait a week for the thing to turn around and around all day and night. When it’s done the rocks are smooth like gemstones. At that young age waiting a week for something seemed like a lifetime — I just didn’t see the point.
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Ah, but now we know that we can go do a hundred other things during the week, and we’ll still have a polished rock at the end of the week. Of course, I haven’t the vaguest idea of what to do with a polished rock.
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That is a fabulous post! Well written and very poignant!
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What a wonderful post. I’m going to send my friend Linda over to read it, because she and her husband married when she was 42 and he was 45. They just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and are so glad they waited for the right one!
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Good post and great photograph! I, too, am patient when it’s something I want and you’re right – there are great strides to be made “in the meantime”.
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Well, my friend, Sandra, stole my thunder by telling you my story of marrying in my forties. But I’m glad she sent me over here. I enjoyed this post very much, and it’s nice to meet another “late bloomer.” By the way, it was our 24th anniversary that we celebrated in August. Number 25 is on the horizon. It doesn’t seem possible.
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Great story of patience and impatience. Just think: the little tree that could. Lovely.
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My daughter’s apple tree produced two apples this year, one for each of her children. I loved this post.
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Great post! We had a little tangerine tree in our back yard in Florida, but I guess I was too patient. Every year, as I waited “just another day or two” for the small crop to reach its peak, the raccoons would beat me to the punch and leave only scooped out rinds behind. Oh well. Raccoons gotta eat, too.
Blessings,
Linda
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You could have saved yourself some time by just marrying some fruit.
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Another well done post. You do seeming opposites so well by showing how they really aren’t opposites, but complements.
I really like your style! 🙂
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Found you through a comment on Renee’s blog (the Spanx post). I haven’t had much time to look around yet, but get a kick out of your stories and sense of humor.
How sweet that your little tree gifted you with an apple!
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