I get the gist of it...

I have a problem. It is a problem very common to 6 year olds, meth addicts and people with dementia. It can be at its worst crippling, at its best, mildly annoying. There are no ribbons for this particular affliction, no 10k walk/jogs and no mediocre celebrity telethons. I have...

A short attention span.

Now now, I'm no hero, just your average mom dealing with a life altering affliction on a day to day basis. No big deal. Whatever.

Really, my problem is impatience, impatience and this overwhelming need to do ALL OF THE THINGS. Because I am a Capricorn, I can't just do all of the things all at once, no. I have to do all of the things, one at a time, to completion. So rather than take my time and do my best, I rush through each thing, balls out screaming and hope for the best so I can move on to the next thing and repeat.

To illustrate this issue I offer the following examples;

1) I am incapable of making a recipe properly the first time. I will inevitably not cook it long enough, be missing a key ingredient, or figure I can jimmy rig some integral utensil or cooking method and just kind of... "figure it out". Ultimately, it turns out poorly.

2) I am no longer allowed to do kitchen math. This stems back to the Thanksgiving where I quadrupled every part of the mashed potato recipe, except for the potatoes.

3) I often forget to read the WHOLE recipe. I get the gist of it...I started doubling last nights cauliflower pizza recipe assuming I would certainly need 6 cups of riced cauliflower, if 1 head made 3 and the recipe said to rice 1 head. I was halfway into my second cauliflower before Boss stopped me, scrolled down a half inch and showed me the part where she only uses 1 of the 3 cups of riced cauliflower for her pizza...oops.

Eventually the pizza turned out like this, so clearly, I figured it out. Take that math!

You can see where I am going with this.

It seems to me that too many of us are caught in this same loop these days. We are so interested in getting to the last step that we forget all of the steps in between. Knowing that patience is a struggle for me, I am looking at projects that will help me to go slowly and wait for the desired outcome, rather than my typical plan of "bust my way through until its done..ish".

The first of these projects is our much talked about vegetable garden. In years past, if something didn't blossom immediately, I lost interest and moved on. This year, we are investing a lot of time and money into making a viable vegetable garden that we can actually maintain and hopefully eat from. We also made a compost bin nearly bursting with various plant goods just waiting to be turned into worm poop and plopped upon my tender young vegetables. But you know how long we have to wait for it to be useful worm poop? like... A YEAR!!!! talk about patience.

I remember my mom always telling me as a kid, "patience is a virtue in this life."   She said it so often the words lost meaning until very recently. Even The Buddha said "the greatest prayer is for patience."

Our garden is my great prayer for patience. The energy that I put into the land, along with the love and dirt and sweat and worm poop will, eventually, yield amazing results, if only I stop...put in the effort, and wait. Good things come when they are meant to come, the universe knows when that is, I do not.

What is a challenge for you moving toward a more simple existence? Already there? What was the biggest transition for you and your family?