Patience

"...without darkness nothing comes to birth as without light nothing flowers." ~ May Sarton

As is the case for everyone, I work alongside other people. In bringing our collective energy together there are often misunderstandings, differing opinions and perspectives and a grappling of personalities and approaches. Attaining unity of thought and vision is hard. Collective action in whatever context, work, parenting, community building etc., is an arena that can prove challenging to manoeuvre through. Yet we all do it because we are inherently social beings and doing things together brings more power to the enterprise and lasting impact to the result. When those inevitable frictions, born of working shoulder to shoulder with each other emerge, it sometimes may prove to be a barrier that halts progress or in some cases results in a project's death. The whole group mentality fractures into camps that then may war with one another. What is to be done then? This is what has been on my mind this morning as I think about one of my group spaces. A friend sees the way forward differently from me and has a totally opposite approach. This is admittedly frustrating. When I selected the virtue this morning, I wanted help to advance beyond this divisive thinking. Patience reminds me to be hopeful and expectant. I have to constantly remind myself that whatever our divergent understanding of how to get to where we want to go, we are heading in the same direction. Who am I to assert that my way is the right way? There is room for individual initiative and its expression in this endeavour. To believe otherwise would be to place myself as an immovable obstacle in our collaborative effort. The pressure that I am feeling to rush forward may be released as we consult diligently about the next steps. The joining in of others to our steering group is a good thing, it admits new ideas, more energy and bodies to do the gargantuan project we have set ourselves. These were not my first thoughts I must admit, but it is the thinking I must adopt in the spirit of inclusion. Yes, it means yet more divergent viewpoints and it will allow us to learn how to be more focused and efficient in our consultations. There is always time and to see scarcity is futile. What is clear for me as I write this musing is that when we take the time as a group to work on our unity, on our own togetherness we will reap the gifts that only deepening our friendship can bring, we will increase our level of effectiveness. It is only through the active practice of unity that brings about unity. Therefore, this is an opportunity to strengthen my capacity to work alongside others, to work harder at understanding their points of view and accept their suggestions and opinions. Their help is essential to the project, there is no way I could attempt this work by myself! In practicing patience today, I can sit with the belief that this project is unfolding in the way that it should. Without this struggle to learn what it means to work together nothing worthwhile can be birthed into the world. I will practice responding with gentleness to whatever may come up and trust that it is what will strengthen us to be prepared to move forward with confidence.