Patience and the Next Step
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After the prolonged staring, he left scuff marks on the soggy river bank and moved to reclaim what he had chosen once. He had been waiting for almost nine hours. By that time, perhaps a clump of birds had chirped for some good long time or perhaps some bugs had tickled his back, or perhaps some squirrels had inspected the whole scenario quite minutely. But the beast focused on what he had chosen, not by fate, but by himself. A bask of crocodiles dared to steal the tiger’s meal. Perhaps they felt the tiger would loathe a bit and then he would pick another easy prey instead of wading around. In that long waiting phase, when another herd came the tiger could have easily picked one of them as his meal. Instead of doing the easy task, the powerful beast waited for the right time to recapture his chosen deed quite ferociously and tactfully. He scudded along the water line to pick up the dead sambar. He dragged it backwards. His strength dismissed the word ‘toil’; rather he owned the pace like one of the most whopping beast of the kingdom. It seemed, as if he announced that in a pretty stentorian tone that now it’s the right time to re-evaluate the power of patience and pace. Of course, a tiger’s roaring never sounds like a soft piano piece. But his roaring was artistic. A hunted and then stolen sambar deer, bask of crocodiles and one tiger and his power- this nature’s plot perhaps seized that day’s other creative aptitudes.
A cranky meow startled me. It’s as if she might have guessed about the excellence of her kind! It’s almost one o’clock in the morning. I touched the pause icon. It’s the sixth time I am watching this YouTube video. After staring at the mighty tiger, I can graciously accept that this act is not only about power; it’s more than that. It’s the action that we all can achieve. I find my ‘Ina’* in that action, in the action of motivating myself to choose patience. This act of reclaiming the stolen stuff and the act of perseverance - both emerged as an exceptional presentation of patience. We often quote patience as ‘pause’. But do we realise that the so-called pause-mode is not something as mundane as it is portrayed? Patience is an action, but we often choose to take that action in exile or even simply behave like a grumpy chap to pass that state of waiting. The mind can work even if the emotional side tries to step aside. The time of patience is the awakening stage when the mind can fill up the most unsweetened cramp corners of our existence and can also dictate the next ideas to assure the best needed steps towards ultimate pace. Author M.J. Ryan expresses patience as the creator of excellence. She says, “...we fulfill our potential with patience.”
Patience is the apt action to see the glistening alignment of mind and goal. Patience is not an awkwardly cornered emotional side; it is the first glance to claim the desired next step. Patience induces pace, and they are tied up. If we choose one, another will be drawn next.
(*In Sanskrit, Ina (इन).—a. means determined or anything that is powerful.)