Hurry up, Patience

Hurry up, patience, you’re not moving fast enough. Kind of a weird way to start a blog entry, but is there more than a grain of truth in what I wrote? In today’s crazy, fast paced world it’s hard to be patient. We want patience to hurry up - to get out of our way because we have things to do, places to go and people to see.

Whether we’re standing in a grocery line behind a woman with dozens of coupons and a long list of price matches, or going through the drive thru at our favorite fast food restaurant and it’s taking more than 5 minutes (gasp), we don’t want to be patient. We don’t want to wait. So what shall we call it - impatience, the tyranny of the urgent ? I think C.S. Lewis nailed it when he said this, “If there’s a spirit of hell, it’s the spirit of distraction.”

 

I blame technology – and all of the devices that distract us day in and day out. The ones that allow us to have a disjointed conversation with a facebook friend we don’t really know, rather than a real one with the person across the table from us. And a question arises - is all this new technology - these urgent mobile device and pads and whatever else that's out there, are they really serving us or are we simply bowing down to the god of the immediate – instant gratification. I guess I’m not saying that all technology is wrong. In and of themselves these devices can’t do anything. No, it’s not the devices that give us so much trouble it’s what we do with them.

Do some soul-searching and ask yourself a few questions. Are these devices a distraction at your family’s dinner table? Do you find yourself checking your phone every two minutes to get the latest updates, or weather reports, or facebook posts? Maybe, just maybe, you might want to put that mobile device down during dinnertime. Better yet, turn it off for the evening. Be. Just be. Be with the ones you love - not distractedly but fully engaged in whatever conversation you’re having.

Set yourself free from the tyranny of the urgent. Make time for the people that really matter in your life. Remember this. Your phone may give you the latest facebook updates, the ability to watch funny u-tube videos or any other number of wonderful distractions, but it won’t give you a hug and a kiss at the end of the day or tell you it loves you.  That’s a family thing  - and family should always come before phones.