Having complained about others with no patience, I learnt a little lesson myself this week. I had been visiting parishioners in hospital, and was retrieving my car from the car park. Wonderful - the car in front of mine had moved on, so I could drive straight through rather than reversing out of the space and negotiating the tight car park. It was then that I saw her. A dear old lady was trying to reverse her car out of a space opposite mine. So I waited.
And waited, until eventually she got out. Pause, as she put her seatbelt on. Then, she had seen a car about half a mile away from the far end of the car park coming, so she let it past before going on herself. Or rather, stalling, and stopping.
I could feel myself getting unduly annoyed, thinking that I could have been halfway home by now. Deep breath, and calm yourself. No point getting agitated - take your time.
The dear lady then drove up to the ticket barrier, but missed it by an arm's length. Which meant she couldn't reach the machine to put her ticket in. Had to take off her seatbelt again and climb up the side of her car door to get the ticket in. Drove past the barrier, stopped to put her seatbelt on again, and dithered before getting into the line of traffic queueing for the traffic light.
So why did I get annoyed? I still would have been sitting in the traffic light queue, and wouldn't have been any further forward. When I did get out of the hospital, I called into a local supermarket and had a pastoral contact that may not have happened if I had fumed and tried to get past the lady. Perhaps I need to take it easy sometimes. Take my time, and find that I am in God's time all along, all because of little old ladies!
* Yes, it's another musically themed posting title - this time the name of Take That's song, Patience. Behold, the video:
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