42
How do we cultivate patience in an instant-gratification world?
OLD WOMEN SITTING
Throughout my lifetime
I've relished sitting next to an old woman
Sitting next to Grandma on the bus
always offering me a half stick of Spearmint gum
The sweet elderly woman at the dentist’s office
squeezing my leg and telling me to be brave
The kind veteran nurse who waited with me
when my husband was in surgery
The chubby receptionist with the French accent
who chatted me up before my job interview
Old women
Their experience of time
was so different than mine
Them: relaxed and peaceful
Me: praying for the clock to spin through the hours
I leaped over life always looking ahead
They nestled into each moment
Life was my fast diet of empty food
Theirs was the slow ripening of savored fruit
Old women
I’m one now
And I will whisper a secret to you:
When you let life open slowly
like petals on a flower
the chair next to you
is never empty