Life is not all golden perfection. Ironically, it takes a lot of patience to realize that patience is a virtue. We often want what we want right now; the heart learns a different tempo—one washed by water and time.

As an ancient Chinese proverb reminds us: “Patience is power; with time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes silk.” The river keeps moving even when we feel stuck on the bank.

When impatience rises, soften your shoulders and breathe. Count in for four, pause for two, exhale for six. Name what is here: “sand.” Notice a single bright fleck: “gold.” Then take the next kind step. This is how hope becomes practice.

Show compassion and it ripples outward. With wisdom remember every storm passes. A crisis is a season, not a sentence.

“All things pass. Patience attains all it strives for,” said St. Teresa of Ávila, a catalyst for change who reformed her Carmelite order step by steady step.

The great Michelangelo observed, “Genius is eternal patience.” He painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling inches from the plaster for years, trusting each day’s small labor.

“Patience is the lesson all souls must learn,” added the “Sleeping Prophet,” Edgar Cayce. “Not merely passiveness, but active patience—learning from one experience and moving on to another.”

In everyday life this looks simple: coaxing a seed to sprout, rebuilding strength one rehab step at a time, waiting with love in a clinic lobby, listening fully before responding. Small rinses, real power.