Patience is a White Flower
21 Tuesday Aug 2012
Written by Nicole Rushin in Personal Growth, Poetry, Prose
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Patience is a white flower lined in shadow
It asks us to come in self honesty
Purity
With empty hands
Childlike
With nothing to hide
We can never call in our patience
We cannot ask for it
Instead it invites us in like a mist
We must go to it
~~~
Painter, Photographer and Writer Terrill Welch posted some amazing photographs of white Cosmos on Google + last week. (Here is the link ~ Cosmos Study)
I asked her how she captured the images because I always find white flowers hard to photograph.
I loved her Zen of Photography answer,
‘I usually wait until I can see lots of shadows in the white to try and keep them from blowing out. I am sure others have all sorts of tricks, but mine is simply watching and waiting.‘
Ah-Ha! I love the idea of finding patience in a white flower.
~~~
The other day I was journaling about waiting and calling things forth from the sea that lies beneath. Afterwards, I wrote a piece for my Dream-Speak members called Casting Nets…here is a snippet;
“We are fishing in the pool of eternity, casting nets, waiting for wondrous things…But it is what we do while we are waiting that defines what we catch.”
…..
When we are not present in our lives, when we forget our self honesty and cease being in the world like a child our days become irritating and our waiting…becomes an act of calling our patience instead of cultivating it.
I told Terrill I would practice and maybe write about the white flowers, but I didn’t mean what I thought I meant.
I didn’t intent to take photographs, although I took a few, I meant that I would practice finding my patience, practice cultivating it.
Practice casting nets, waiting and letting go…
…..
White paper
White flowers
They want to be filled
But I don’t approach the page with a pen
Instead I arrive with an empty hand
…..
What are some little things you do every day to achieve more presence?
More mindfulness?
More patience?
….
19 comments
August 22, 2012 at 3:35 AM
Beautiful!
August 22, 2012 at 10:36 AM
Thank-You Gabri!
August 22, 2012 at 8:28 AM
Watching and waiting….wonderful words of wisdom (WOW)!
Isn’t much of life like that – we have to stay patient – quiet, mindful of the now and when we don’t we seem to create a sort of chaos in our lives. The way I do it is to BREATH…. I notice my breath and in noticing my breath it takes me back to the present moment. I also have started YOGA – a place of being totally present with the breath and the body.
I simply loved this post and your analogies of waiting with the camera for the perfect picture of the white flower and also the analogy of casting the net and waiting for the fish to arrive.
Great way for me to start my day!
Thank you!
<3 Nancy
August 22, 2012 at 10:41 AM
Oh I do hope you enjoy your yoga class. I have tried to so many times to stick with a yoga practice. I always find myself wondering what time it is and not enjoying the postures in the class. I finally came to realize that the only reason I ever took yoga classes was to meet people and to engage in interesting conversations before and after the classes. I tend to think that people are my practice. I just want to know everybody’s stories. When I finally figured this out about myself I just stopped trying to force myself to attend the classes. Writing, people and dreams are my daily practices. It is what works for me. Gardening is my exercise and I am clearing out paths around our property for meditation walks. Lots of fun! I really want to know how you enjoy the classes. Can’t wait to hear about it.
Nicole~
August 22, 2012 at 10:37 AM
I love this: “But it is what we do while we’re waiting that defines what we catch.”
That is so true.
August 22, 2012 at 10:48 AM
What are you catching Alisha?
August 22, 2012 at 3:23 PM
Pieces of me.
August 22, 2012 at 2:32 PM
Isn’t it funny how we get little lessons sent to us in life…lessons of trust…lessons of patience….lately I have been getting so impatient…impatient of where I am now, and where I want to be….but even today I had a reminder that really in such a short amount of time, things have changed….patience is all I need….a little patience, because every day is a new day, and one day all I am waiting for will be there tomorrow….
“…but it is what we do whilst we are waiting that defines what we catch”
very wise words!
A lot of the stuff I work on at the moment is remaining in the ‘present’…perhaps in a different sense to what you talk of…but it’s all the same really…whether we spend too much time dwelling on the past…or too much time focusing on the future…whether it’s memories which stop us being present, or if it’s dreams out of reach….what’s happening now is the most important time…
August 22, 2012 at 2:53 PM
It is all about the now. Even vision stories are meant to bring more focus into your ‘now’. Yes, I’ll stick by that comment, ‘It is what we do while we are waiting that defines what we catch.’ Since you are in the Dream-Speak group I wonder if you read that post, Casting Nets? I had a visit from a lone buzzard that was quite stirring.
N~
August 22, 2012 at 3:14 PM
Actually I hadn’t…just read it now…just googled the film too…definately a must see by the looks of it…
“We act with envy and move in regret and wonder why we are catching sharks in a dead sea.”
It’s so easy to look at what everyone else has…it’s too easy to regret….I’ve come to realise the path of regret is lonely and easier than that of letting go…but one of those paths is so much more fulfilling…
Not only are you a poet, but a buddha full of wisdom…just kidding….but it’s always good to read your wise words on lessons you come across…I should open my eyes more…allow myself to learn more
August 22, 2012 at 10:07 PM
I don’t know where the wisdom comes from, Jasmin. I don’t talk the way I write. I can barely explain things when I open my mouth. Something happens when I go to my writing space and words just come out. Most of the time they make sense and when I go back and read my words I say ‘Wow, I should take my own advice.’ Sometimes I even say, ‘I wrote that?’ I actually suffer from episodes that are like mild seizures or something. I call them fugues and I can only explain the episodes like having complete short term memory loss. When I have them I can look at my blog or look at something I wrote and I have no idea I wrote it. It is a strange feeling, like seeing my work through another pair of eyes for a moment. I can zen myself through them and it is fun to pick up a camera and see what crazy stuff I see when I am having these fugues. Maybe this is the space where the words come from. Not to get too long on this comment but there are children who look like they are deeply daydreaming, but they are actually having mild seizures. And some forms of panic attacks are probably caused from mild seizures that people don’t realize they are having.
Anyway – long response.
And yes, regret is a lonely path. (and it is hard on the knees)
N~
August 23, 2012 at 2:22 AM
There is indeed so much to learn from a white flower or white paper. We are often quick to judge the “emptiness” of something so white and clear, yet fail to realize the profound purpose behind this humble demeanour that the colour white exudes. May we not always seek to impose ourselves, and like you said, learn the patience and sincerity of the white flower, which I feel reflects a genuine heart. And oh the fruits of a genuine heart, they are good indeed.
August 23, 2012 at 2:17 PM
Hi Titus,
Thanks for commenting. Inside the emptiness is everything. Amazing that we could talk about all the stuff contained in a white flower, in its absence of color, forever!
N~
August 23, 2012 at 6:34 AM
I don’t think anyone knows where wisdom or creating comes from. In your description to Jasmin on your writing process is similar to mine. I call them my bursts of imagination that flow when I least expect them. But I find that if I wait and call on what little patience I have the process or miracle of poetry begins. I cannot force it, believe me I have tried. There are days my brain is twisted with words that bog down the writing process nothing works, so I wait. Then the morning light opens up like your beautiful white flower, the poetry flows and I am in awe that I who usually speak in simple sentences can write a poem that moves me and hopefully others. Does that make sense to you Nicole?
I loved your poem, it made me think about the beauty of poetry and with patience in the end miracles ascend.. Paulette
August 23, 2012 at 2:20 PM
It makes perfect sense to me Paulette. I wrote a poem a while back about looking for poetry. How it never works to look for it and how funny I must have looked taking pictures of poetry in the garden. Silly me.
We just have to have patience – not call it – just have it.
In flashes of Satori – that is how it often happens for me.
N~
August 29, 2012 at 7:43 AM
It’s spoken true that patience is a white flower.Thanks for sharing it.
August 29, 2012 at 9:36 AM
This poem certainly makes a lot of sense & is immensely purposeful. Great !!!
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October 4, 2012 at 1:00 PM
beautiful, I have no patience, never had but recently met a guy, we seemed to get on really wel, his work kept us in communication with e-mails but I had to wait 8 months to see him again, we shared a wonderfull weekend and then he disappeared again, I ached to contact him but didn’t, 11 weeks later I received a text message from him and may go to the Galapagos with him. Patience brings miracles!!!!! I’m starting to see it’s value.
October 4, 2012 at 2:48 PM
Wow! I hope it all works our for you, Fern. Patience does pay off if we can just allow it. Keep me posted on your story.
N~