I’ve been thinking a lot about patience recently. I’ve had to be very patient waiting for the baby to come, not knowing when he will but also understanding that it will happen when it is going to. I’ve also had to have patience with my body and some of the physical discomfort of late pregnancy, and of course I anticipate having to be patient after birth. I will have to be patient with myself, to give myself time to recover, to not expect to jump back into everything right away. And I think parenting will require a good dose of patience (I’m not completely sure, but it’s a gut feeling I have).

I’m not a naturally patient person. In fact, being mostly a type A personality that can never sit still does not give you much inborn patience. I have tried to cultivate it throughout the years and I find mindfulness has really helped me. Putting myself in the mindset to enjoy a task, regardless of how tedious it may seem, is a good way to practice for all the upcoming tedious tasks of life (life is full of tedious tasks, and if you were to skip them all you’d end up with a very short one). A task I find tedious sometimes is sweeping, but as I wrote in Sweeping is Zen I try to be mindful as I sweep the house and take that time to clear my mind, instead of being impatient over how long it is taking. Another of my less favorite tasks is folding laundry (I’m really not a great folder of clothing). But as I fold, I am trying to practice the art of folding and giving the clothing the respect it deserves as something we wear everyday.

It is very hard to be patient sometimes, and I’m sure my patience will be surely tested in the coming months as a new mom. All I can do is practice some patience through domesticity, as I await the incoming bundle of tiny human that is on his way, maybe now maybe later (it better be soon!). Until then, I will go back to folding some tiny laundry (folding baby clothes is mostly impossible).