The Active Virtue of Patience in Busy World

Most of us would think that the idea of crossing a road should be pretty self-explanatory, if not, then you should have learned that as a pedestrian, crossing the road when the cars have a green light is mostly likely not a good idea. It's actually probably a horrible idea!

Yes, of course I have a story to back up this post about crossing the road. Several days ago, while waiting for a light to turn green I noticed a woman standing at the corner ready to cross the street. Well, did she decide to cross when the pedestrian light gave her the recommendation? Nope! She decided that it would be smarter to begin crossing a busy street after my light turned green. Because of course pedestrians have the right of way, no matter what.... Nope! Wrong again! There's a reason the pedestrian light comes on at a certain time, well because that's the safest time to cross a busy intersection. Not only did this woman cross the road when the cars had the right of way, but she also chose to do so at a very, very, no I mean a very slow pace (age was definitely not a factor to the slowness, let's just say it was a smartphone). I was not the only unhappy driver to say the least, but I kept my cool and sat and waited for her. Because patience is an active virtue, right?

What's the moral to this story? Well there is actually more than one!

The obvious one is that the woman's inconsiderate approach and choice to ignore the rest of society functioning around her was ridiculous selfish. Who needs to watch for cars when they will watch for me, right? Wrong again!

Another lesson was the response many of the drivers wanted to relay or did display towards the woman. Yes, she was inconsiderate, but screaming at her was not moving her along any faster. Even though I was irritated, and it gave me a great topic for a blog post, it also helped me work on something that I struggle with each and every day....PATIENCE!

Patience is actually one of the most beautiful virtues, after humility! It may be an active virtue that takes some of us many years to obtain, but in this world of chaos, it is one of the most obvious. A patient person can easily be picked out of a crowd. Those are the people who find happiness in even the smallest disturbance. How beautiful! It might be a difficult virtue to teach through words, but it can be learned very easily by example. I may personally be working on this virtue of patience everyday with my four children, but I hope someday that my hard work will have taught them how to be patient and loving themselves.

Have a Safe and Happy Weekend!

The Active Virtue of Patience is a Busy World

Most of us would think that the idea of crossing a road should be pretty self-explanatory, if not, then you should have learned that as a pedestrian, crossing the road when the cars have a green light is mostly likely not a good idea. It's actually probably a horrible idea!

Yes, of course I have a story to back up this post about crossing the road. Several days ago, while waiting for a light to turn green I noticed a woman standing at the corner ready to cross the street. Well, did she decide to cross when the pedestrian light gave her the recommendation? Nope! She decided that it would be smarter to begin crossing a busy street after my light turned green. Because of course pedestrians have the right of way, no matter what.... Nope! Wrong again! There's a reason the pedestrian light comes on at a certain time, well because that's the safest time to cross a busy intersection. Not only did this woman cross the road when the cars had the right of way, but she also chose to do so at a very, very, no I mean a very slow pace (age was definitely not a factor to the slowness, let's just say it was a smartphone). I was not the only unhappy driver to say the least, but I kept my cool and sat and waited for her. Because patience is an active virtue, right?

What's the moral to this story? Well there is actually more than one!

The obvious one is that the woman's inconsiderate approach and choice to ignore the rest of society functioning around her was ridiculous selfish. Who needs to watch for cars when they will watch for me, right? Wrong again!

Another lesson was the response many of the drivers wanted to relay or did display towards the woman. Yes, she was inconsiderate, but screaming at her was not moving her along any faster. Even though I was irritated, and it gave me a great topic for a blog post, it also helped me work on something that I struggle with each and every day....PATIENCE!

Patience is actually one of the most beautiful virtues, after humility! It may be an active virtue that takes some of us many years to obtain, but in this world of chaos, it is one of the most obvious. A patient person can easily be picked out of a crowd. Those are the people who find happiness in even the smallest disturbance. How beautiful! It might be a difficult virtue to teach through words, but it can be learned very easily by example. I may personally be working on this virtue of patience everyday with my four children, but I hope someday that my hard work will have taught them how to be patient and loving themselves.

Have a Safe and Happy Weekend!

Ground Floor Opportunities

Life is a whirlwind of opportunities. We enter into these "events" oftentimes not exactly knowing how we got to that point, or where it will lead us. As we look back to the original circumstances which led us to a specific place in our lives whether that is a relationship, marriage, college, a career or a friendship we can only be thankful for those unknown opportunities. A society that has become so fast-paced, even email appears slow to some of us, we no longer are able to value the virtue of patience and long, hard-working struggles. We are only take an idea, develop it, plan and expect it to become a success over-night, but in reality this is farther from the truth and I myself have unfortunately also become drawn into this backwards way of thinking at times. While brainstorming the other day about a few of our business ventures, I began to think about my floral design company and how only after 5 years have I been able to venture out to more clientele, my company's name is finally making a brand for itself and I feel I have hit a point of success. The funny thing about this company is that I never dreamed it would "take-off" overnight, I always had a realistic view that it was hard to break into any industry when you have no connections or backing, but I did it and have enjoyed the hard-work.

It is interesting however, that I am unable to take this philosophy or way of thinking into my other business ventures or aspects of life. I strive for personal success, but at times I don't feel it is moving fast enough. It is then that I must take a step back and re-examine myself and my motives. Am I becoming like the rest of society, or the rest of my generation, not wanting to wait? Truly, I am an impatient person which pretty much everyone can see from my choleric, A-Type personality, but that is no excuse for my constant drive to never let myself rest or to never accept the current position I am in. This past year has definitely been eye-opening for me as I have learned several of these lessons and work everyday to foster a bit more patience in my soul! As hard as that may be, I also don't expect this virtue to appear overnight or at an unrealistic rapid pace. This is just like everything else, it takes hard-work and time to develop, but believe me, it took me a long time to discover this within myself. The most important thing is that I have had to learn to be easier on myself. When I am too hard on myself and don't believe I am living up to my expectations or the expectations of those around me, I then become unsatisfied. This truly a fault of my own.

So, the lesson to be learned is to live life with a hard-working purpose, but to start with the ground floor opportunities. Because even though we never know their worth or the outcome of such circumstances, they are more beneficial in our lives than all the goals we set for ourselves but never accomplish. Or we become frustrated because they are not accomplished in the way we imagined. The funny thing is that when these goals are cultivated, in the way of divine providence, rather than to our own plan, it is actually more successful than we could have ever imagined. On the contrary, when we push something too hard and it is not the right timing, the sky falls, we feel like failures and we are forced to wait a bit longer for another ground floor opportunity.



Here are a few of the ground floor opportunities in our lives whether individual or as business partners:

The release of our first book, Provocative Manners: The Sauce of Life, in April 2013.

The start-up of DMH Custom Floral Designs in January 2008.

The development of Aircut.

The start-up of our company, Lady Lux Events, in 2012.

Is the Word "Sorry" in your Vocabulary? It Better Be!

Written By: Ooh La La (Danielle Marie)

We all have those crazy, over the top, outlandish days!  Wait, you may say that's pretty much everyday.  No, we mean those days where all you want to do is sit, have a glass of wine (actually make that two glasses) and zone-out or even have a good cry!  We've all been there and it's usually the cause of too much stress, over-booking ourselves, loss of control and thoughts of failure.  With all this being said, don't take out your problems on everyone else!  This all ends up creating ugly situations where we regret our actions and words.  So, what's the next step?  Time to apologize!  Why is it so hard to apologize when we are in the wrong?

Just remember, apologizing is stating you have done something wrong and asking for forgiveness. You may sometimes have to apologize even if you are not at complete fault, but be the better person and try to move on while helping others move on as well!

Seriously, this topic shouldn't be that hard to understand, now let's put it into practice!  If you bump into another shopper at the store, apologize or say "excuse me".  Don't give them the death stare, you aren't always right!  If you get in a car accident, ask how the other person is doing and apologize if you were at fault!  If you hurt another person with cruel words or actions, apologize!  This will make a world of difference to that other person, and add a smile too.

If it's your spouse, hurry up with that apology, don't take a week, a month or your whole life to remove your pride and bring out the words "I'm sorry".  All that waiting may result with you missing out on some amazing conversations, romantic dates or even those fabulous nights of love-making!

After the initial apology, it may take the other person time to accept it.  Be patient, show your kindness, concern and gratitude and life will be much easier and happier!  Don't keep these feelings built up, they will eat you alive!  In the end, IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON! 

Do you need a "smoozing gift" to help the apology get started?

Flowers: Pick a bouquet of wild flowers, A few hydrangeas from your garden or have your local florist design a custom bouquet!  www.dmhcustomfloraldesigns.com

Chocolates:  Who can go wrong with chocolates?
A Card with a Personal Message
Wine or A Favorite Beer:  So much to choose from!
A Massage:  This could be a personal massage or a gift card to a salon www.azanaspa.com
A Surprise Night out on the Town:  Have fun with this one and go crazy or keep it simple!

Champagne and Chocolates (or as Heather Dubrow says, "champs") LOVE!

Photo: www.heatherdubrow.com

Sauce of Life Quotes: "A stiff apology is a second insult.... The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt." ~G.K. Chesterton