Patience and Persistence.
Welcome to your Wednesday Museletter 💌
First, here's whats happening this month in the Britta GreenViolet ecosystem...
🌹 🗡️ Rose & Sword: Doors are OPEN!
A new 14-week group mentorship for busy creators with full schedules who refuse to give their body, mind and well being to the grind culture... and who choose powerfully to dream awake a new way of balancing doing with being. A big fat discount is available through July 16th for the boldly decisive who know this is for them. Read the details and join us here.
Now, onwards!
I've been thinking a lot lately about patience and persistence.
These two words started to come through as a pair for me in the recent months, and it got me thinking how they relate to one another...
Today's museletter is simply that—a gentle meandering around a garden where these concepts are flourishing wildly and with abandon, side by side, weaving their vines around each other's stems and intoxicating each other with the scent of their respective blossoms.
Let's investigate.
P A T I E N C E
According to Oxford Dictionary, it means the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.
According to Gene Key 5, the shadow of patience is impatience (duh). And the siddhi or enlightened state is, wait for it... timelessness. Ahhhhh. Here's a beautiful sonic journey through this Gene Key.
Thich Nhat Hanh (referred to lovingly as "Thay") said we never need to wait—not in lines, or anywhere, ever. So what are we doing as we stand in line? I found this short, sweet article written by a student of Thay's on "The Wisdom of Waiting."
They say patience is a virtue, and they're right. I definitely know the feeling of wrestling with the part of me that wants to be patient, while another part of me infuriatingly rages with impatience for the object of my displeasure to do that thing that I want them to do!
What I know for sure is that when patience is effortless, my entire being feels cloud-like.
Life feels easy, even when it's not. Because it's okay. I'm here, now. Isn't that what patience is?
P E R S I S T E N C E
According to Oxford Dictionary, it means firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition; the continued or prolonged existence of something.
There's a famous feminist activist who said, "we persist." Oddly, I can't find any reference to it online. Maybe I'm that feminist. But I'm pretty sure some brilliant woman said it before me. If you know, hit reply and fill me in.
Persistence and perseverance have slightly different flavors, though they're related by the Latin root "perseverare," which means "to continue steadfastly." This article claims that persistence carries a negative connotation because it's often related to stubborn doggedness to keep going in spite of obstacles, which is a real hindrance if we're being single-minded in sticking it out even if it doesn't serve us (ie. a job we hate, a relationship that's run its course...). Perseverance is more neutral and has a friendlier connotation. But I like persistence for it's specificity. The feminist movement has indeed persisted, because we've had to to maintain basic rights to our own bodies and lives. The Resistance in Star Wars didn't just persevere. They persisted, because they had to for survival.
There's a photo of me as a kid where I can see my spunk and rebellion clearly, which looks like the courage to be authentic on it's good days. On it's bad days, it looks like a stubborn brat. I can still relate.
I pray that I can use my stubborn resistance for the best and highest good of all concerned... not to avoid discomfort or get my way, but to stand for what's right, and to do the work that is mine to do.
So how do these words land for you these days, Judi?
Where are you being asked to practice patience right now?
And how's that going?
Are you passing the proverbial test?
Where are you being asked to persist?
What forces are you battling, in yourself or the world?
How's your energy and fortitude holding up?
I'd love to hear what emerges. Hit reply and let me know!
In your corner, patiently persisting,
PS. While this isn't a promo email for Rose & Sword, I would be remiss to not mention the synchronicity between the symbol of the rose with patience, and the symbol of the sword with persistence.
Join us and learn how to call upon the wisdom of these energies with other mystical pragmatists. Earlybird pricing saves you 1k off tuition through July 16.