"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart..."
Rainer Maria Rilke
Letter to a Young Poet.
Years ago someone observed that quite often, women, when asked the question: "What does the tide do?" reply: "It comes in!" Men, on the other hand, generally reply: The tide goes in and out." As always with generalizations a lot of people tend to disagree, but given some quiet introspection many women have admitted that indeed, we are seldom comfortable with the times in our lives when the tide is definitely on its way out, and at best, we barely tolerate it.
Even harder to bear are the times in our lives when the tide seems to be neither coming nor going, when life itself seems to have come to a halt. When nothing appears to be happening, nothing is moving. We are impatient, we fret that things are not going as planned... that something is blocking our way... we were so sure we were on the right track...
Tides of Life I
Yet it is when it appears that absolutely nothing is happening, that everything is. It's in that time when everything seems to have stopped, that the most is going on. Could it be that it is the unforseen forces in our lives that are at work? As is, almost it seems, that same force is getting its ducks in a row? And once everything is in place, things can then unfold?
Tides of Life II
May we learn to love the pauses in our lives. It might be nature's way of reminding us to take a breath, letting us catch up with ourselves, rest awhile... and be ready to welcome the treasure that the incoming tide is bound to bring us.
