"Patience is a virtue," I have responded flippantly to those who dared question my arrival, finish, completion time for any project or event I was involved in.
For years I have been a chronically tardy person, and have been the underlying cause of slow starts in our family more often than not. I've made people wait all over Southern Illinois, and several states besides. I have repented, tried to change, set my clocks an hour ahead, my calendars a week ahead, and have had good friends lie about the start time of their planned events by more than an hour, in order to see me arrive on time. Nothing has seemed to help.
Which makes me wonder, why would writing be the profession I'm called to? In writing, there is always a deadline. And a cranky editor to enforce deadline in journalistic writing. A fire breathing editor, always there, breathing down your neck, causing you to have to edit and re-edit out of sheer nervous frustration. I have never had a lot of sympathy, or empathy, for those who I have kept waiting for minutes, sometimes hours at a time. Not even cranky editors.
I just can't relate at all. I am usually running so far behind at any planned event or outing, that if someone arrives later than I, it is just a sweet relief, and gives me more time to put on my shoes, comb my hair, start the dinner they are coming to eat, dust the car, finish the project, etc....No, tardy people do not bother me, they help me to feel better about myself. At least until this past few weeks.
I have decided to experiment with a vegetable garden, and owing to the fact that this is, as I stated, an "experiment" I have borrowed the use of a tiller, and a person who knows how to use the tiller, that being my niece Brittany. My mom had agreed to bring tiller and niece to my house for a plowing of the gardens event. The first event was scheduled for mid-April, and went off without a hitch. The second tilling session was scheduled for the end of April.
GRRRRRRRRR...and I am still waiting. Between a bout with the flu that I had, rainy weather, and other pesky issues, my garden still sits! Untilled, unplanted, and quickly growing unmanageable with an overload of weeds! And I am discovering that I really hate to wait! And all the while I hear echoing in my head "Patience is a virtue," and "you reap what you sow."
Okay, I get it already, I'll do better, really I will. Soon...
Murphysboro, Ill. —
