Patience Please . . . I'm Growing

I’m looking at the age spots on my hands. Poised to type, as my hands are now, the spots are very obvious and make it seem to me like these aren’t really my hands at all. My hands are young and strong and . . . but then I remember that just two days ago I couldn’t unscrew a bottle cap. No, these are my hands.

Aging is a strange thing. I don’t feel older, but my body looks and reacts older. I wish I had understood that better when I was younger. I used to think that the old people around me were somehow different, not at all the same as me. But now I know that the old people around me felt exactly the way I did. They may have had a few more physical pains and wrinkles, but they dreamed and had goals and sorrowed and laughed just like I did.

I hope this doesn’t sound morbid. I’m not at all feeling sorry for myself. I’m only reflecting on how much in life I have learned and how as I grow more experienced and closer to the Spirit my understanding grows. In other words, I’m thinking about how spiritual growth is as much a process as physical growth. And process always requires patience. There are some things we just can’t understand until we have more life experience and growth. Therefore, patience with ourselves is as important as patience with others.