Lessons come to me on a regular basis. Life provides plenty of clues that should make me take notice, but generally it take a 2 by 4 against my head to get my attention. After about the third “notice” I will usually start to realize that something important is taking place.

It started with the ants. They first appeared in the kitchen a few at a time. Then several showed up in the bathroom. Next about a dozen started marching across my desk. We were replacing our back deck with a much needed, larger, sturdier version, and when we pulled away the cedar siding to prepare to bolt it to the house, a literal army of the miniature workers swarmed out from behind it. Gross!

I asked my friend Dell, who understands nature better than I, what ants mean when they appear like this and she replied, “Who in your household needs to learn about patience?”  That would be me!

I was fed up with the work ethic of the contractor, tired of waiting for changes in my career, and pushing hard to manifest success for a conference and an upcoming class. Too hard, actually.

But it didn’t become clear with the ants or even the conference which wasn’t as well attended as I had hoped. It took that proverbial broadside slap from the Universe for me to “get it”. I was at the memorial service for Randy’s father who passed away last Thanksgiving, listening to the eulogy being given by the minister. I felt like he was speaking directly to me when he quoted a verse from Psalm 27 – “Wait upon the Lord.”

All the hurrying and pushing we do doesn’t make the perfect result happen. What we generally get when we do this is what we are able to create by ourself, not what we might have manifested if we allowed the Divine Plan to unfold. I alone limit myself. Nobody else has the power to do that, and I do it by settling for mortal creation rather than being patient and waiting for the Lord to provide.

Impatience begins in our head, so in order to find patience we must first clear our mind of the constant chatter that continuously tells us we must hurry and eagerly provides a long list of things which must be done RIGHT NOW. We easily become deluded into believing that this is real. Stress builds up as we face the ever-growing mountain of stuff to do and quickly we lose track of two important concepts—our priorities and the truth (which is that nothing truly HAS to be done, ever).

It’s amazing how quickly we can be distracted and pulled off our direction. There is a Divine Plan to the Universe, however chaotic it might appear. Quantum physicists have proven that there is order, even in chaos. Therefore when times appear to get stressful, it’s the perfect opportunity to simply stop and wait for that plan to unfold (or perhaps just catch up to us). As with everything else, it’s about choice. You can choose to struggle to achieve your goals or you can listen to the ancient words from the psalmist and “wait upon the Lord”. My experience has shown repeatedly that if I will stop and wait, I will be shown a better, easier way, and it will be one which is for the highest good of all rather than just for me.

It isn’t always easy for those of us who are used to being in control and competition to surrender to that Divine Plan and accept that there is plenty for all of us. We don’t have to “get there” first in order to be taken care of. If we allow it, everyone will be. Wait patiently and see what happens!