Coping with Setbacks and Delays

I often feel the frustration that comes when, despite a passionate intent to create something, it doesn't come easily.

I've had plenty of opportunities to learn patience, even though patience feels at odds with creative enthusiasm.

What's helped me cope with delays is the observation that the process of creating things in physical reality is quite slowed down--by contrast, say, to dream life. Imagine if things in the physical world popped into existence as quickly as they do in dreams. The slowing down is an advantage.

The lag between conception and realization can seem unbearable. But it's this lag that lets us become clear and purposeful about what we create.

If setbacks and delays can be reframed as opportunities to improve, refine, they work to advantage.

I suppose there's a degree to which the timing of everything makes patience inevitable. Time is a complex medium to coordinate. No matter how much a tree might be in the mood to make leaves in January, it must wait till April. If the leaves were put out sooner they might be covered with snow. No one would be able to appreciate them. Worse still, branches might break. In nature there's a wisdom that guides the timing of things. We can be guided by similar forces.

To learn joy in the slow unfolding is powerful. I often grimace and tap my feet. But sometimes I let it be just fine.

Cone of Uncertainty - Painting by James Stephens - Oil on Canvas - 2010