Instant Gratification

I'm not the most patient person. Life is just so fast-paced that I get antsy and want things to happen faster than they do. This makes me a real treat to be stuck with in Atlanta traffic. I'm one of those drivers that thinks it's helpful for me to say sarcastic things to other drivers even though they can't hear me: "Oh, no, definitely don't use your turn signal, I can use my telepathy to anticipate where you're going", or "oh, you want to merge onto I-75 going 25 miles an hour? What a super idea. Somebody wave the checkered flag for Speed Racer over here". See what I mean? I'm a real treat. So delightful.

Anyway, I feel like God's really been challenging me the past few weeks to work on my patience, and He's figured out all kinds of ways to do it. Because I'm not exactly the most teachable person, so just one thing to help me learn patience wouldn't be enough.

Gardening: 
I know this seems obvious. "Uh, Diana, you can't just plant something and expect vegetables to spring out of the earth like a scene from Fantasia". I know this. I just get really excited when I start to see little blossoms on my cherry tomato plants, or see my Chinese cabbages starting to grow a bit, and it makes me want to stand in my garden and try to make them grow faster using the power of my mind.

Crossfit:
I left the gym feeling the worst yesterday, and I was just bratty enough to complain about my first-world problem on Facebook when I got home. Now to clarify, I wasn't feeling physically bad (although....squats....quads...ouch), it was more of an internal "ugh, why are you so bad at squats?". Thankfully, I woke up to some super encouraging comments, and a really nice reminder from my coach that "strength takes time". I am loving my weekday Crossfit workouts so much, and I'm proud of the progress I've made so far - I just need to chill the heck out with beating myself up, celebrate progress (even if it's slow progress), and keep reminding myself that I'll get where I want to be, but I won't wake up tomorrow and look in the mirror and see Annie Thorisdottir, or be able to pull off a 105 pound snatch (like my bad-ass friend Lindsay Pastor) based on sheer willpower.

Life in General:
I just get impatient about everything. I want to know what's happening and how I'm going to do it, and what the plan is. I just need to calm down and realize that God's got a plan for everything, and that I'm not always going to see what the plan was until it's behind me. He cares about the big stuff in my life, but he also cares about the Chinese cabbage in my backyard, and the WOD I'm about to go and do. I just need to keep repeating John 13:7 in my head whenever I start to think "Yeah God, but if you tell me what your plan is, then we'll both know."

Patience, Grasshopper....