He that can have patience can have what he will

He that can have patience can have what he will

He that can have patience can have what he will

He that can have patience can have what he will

He that can have patience can have what he will.

Benjamin Franklin
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This reminds me of an experience several years ago when I was doing some crab photographing.

I was standing on the breakwater on a beach when I saw crablets crawling out of holes and cracks in the breakwater. Armed with my phone camera, I tried to take a few shots to share in the blog. But little did I know that the crablets taught me a very good lesson about patience that day. Standing up, there is no hope of getting any close and good enough picture of the crablets using the zoom of the camera phone. I basically had to squat down in order to try to take good shots of any of them.

Besides that, I had to stay very still and make as little movements as possible, as the slightest movement would send them darting back into the holes and cracks. So for 1-2 hours, I played ‘hide-and-seek’ with the crablets. Well … it was a lot of ‘barbecuing’ waiting in the sun. Yes, I did get a few shots of them in the end, but I must admit that they didn’t turn out very well.

Don’t get it wrong that the word patience literally means ‘waiting for things to happen.’ There is definitely waiting involves, but there is also work to be done, before and during the waiting. As in my crab photographing case, I got sun burnt and a lot of sweats! Patience, in this case, means having a positive mental attitude while waiting and at the same time to continue sowing with faith. And when we have already done all that we could and there is nothing else that we can do, we wait.

During this time of waiting, it is especially important to continue to have that positive mental attitude, trust and the belief that as you sow, so shall you reap. That positive mental attitude would be as what Benjamin Franklin had said, “Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” And while keeping in the sunlight, to believe that something good will come out of this waiting, and trust that it will. A lot of time the different between those who make it and those who don’t is perhaps in how one handles this waiting game.

There is a time for everything in the universe and we must be patience for it to happen. As what John Onen Sampson said, “Decide to do whatever it takes, however long it takes, to get what you want and your success is virtually guaranteed.” And as how Benjamin Franklin put it, yes, with patience, you can have what you will.

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