Patience, Patience, Patience

We have all heard and used the old adage that patience is a virtue. Well, this time of year it is hard to be virtuous. I don't want to be patient. I want to paddle my canoe and I want it to be warmer than 27 degrees. I don't want to look in the woods and see white; I want to see green. I want to look across a lake and see the sun reflecting off blue water, not an unending expanse of white. Normally, I am not in a hurry for the seasons to change; they come at a pleasant pace here in Minnesota, except for the transition between winter and full blown spring; but I am really anxious for winter to be over here in Ely. Last night Diane shared a part of a poem by Robert Frost (bad choice of names f0r the mood I am in) that she found yesterday. It made me realize that I am not the first to lament the slow pace of Spring's arrival. The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day When the sun is out and the wind is still, You're one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, A cloud comes over the sunlit arch, A wind comes off a frozen peak, And you're two months back in the middle of March. Robert Frost, "Two Tramps in Mud Time" Well, we are two months back in the middle of March. Yesterday I awoke to 2 inches of that white stuff on the ground, and the sky spit snow most of the day with a cold wind out of the northwest. As I look out my window today the sky is clear and it might get up to the high 30's and low 40's, so the remaining snow pack will continue to get smaller. Ok...I will be patient. I will savor this day for what it brings. I will not try to rush my life that seems to be moving at a breakneck pace toward that inevitable end. I will strive to be kind to those that I meet today. I will be virtuous, by being patient; at least until tomorrow when it is supposed to bring a mix of snow and rain. See you on the water...eventually. ...Bert Heep