Love is Patience

Several years ago, a friend was injured in a car accident on her way to meet her husband at an important meeting.  He was called to the scene and immediately began berating her for being in an accident, for not being at the meeting, for calling him out of the meeting, “How could you be so stupid?”  She was emotionally traumatized by the accident and his being there just compounded her distress.  A police officer tried to calm him down, “Look, sir, she’s been through enough.  To tell you the truth, this kind of accident happens a lot at this intersection; it’s not her fault.  Please be patient with her.”  Patience is the gift of time we give to another individual.  It is the time we step back to look at the bigger picture, realizing how much worse things could have been.  It is time to take a deep breath and soften an angry reaction; time to gather more information before we jump to a wrong conclusion.  It is time for us to realize and to admit that it could have happened to us.  It is time to really understand what that person must be feeling;  time to let our love lead to the compassion and support that they need in this very moment.