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Patience
and the illusion called time "There
is time for everything." --
Thomas Edison "There
is absolutely no reason for being rushed along with the rush.
Everybody should be free to go slow." -- Robert Frost |
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Have
you ever visited a Thomas Edison home/museum, either the one in New
Jersey or Florida? When you visit one of these places and
walk around the grounds - taking in the gardens, the
laboratories, the libraries, the inventions - the most
powerful feeling you are left with is "How did he do it all?".
How did this man pack more than a dozen lifetimes into just one? Where
did he find the time to accomplish all that he did? And at the
same time live a peaceful life filled with family, friends, and
lots of quality leisure time? Well, the truth is that Thomas
Edison understood and mastered both Ted's distinction about
"physical and mental structures," as well as Frost's
about feeling "free to go slow," and he gave himself
completely, yet calmly, to every single task - one at a time -
whether it was his endless experiments, his homes, his gardening, his
inventions, his love of conversation with family and friends, his
reading, and there was more than enough time for all of it. What
an amazing role model for effective, efficient "time
management" through the subtle art of "being present" to
each moment. |
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I
especially love his famous line that goes, "Don't tell me I've
failed; I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work." With
that, I can always remember, especially in the midst of my own hardship
and turmoil over my own failings, that I haven't failed; I'm just
sorting through all those things that don't work on my way to great
discovery. So, this morning as I was sitting here praying,
"God, please help me regain my sense of calm and peacefulness as we
enter the home stretch before our new baby comes.", I flipped
the page of one of my desk calendars, and these words appeared
to further reinforce today's theme: "How
are we to be patient with our partner's, our children's, our
friends', and our neighbors' faults if we are impatient in dealing
with our own? They who are fretted by their own failings will not
correct them. All profitable correction comes from a calm and
peaceful mind." |
