Want Answers and Solutions? First, Live the Questions.

“It got too much water but it’s gonna be all right, Miss Barbara,” says Roth, my landscaper, smiling while his shaven head glistens in the July sun.  “Just be patient.”

Patient, my petunias. I’d throw one of those Bluestones he’s unloading in his direction if it weren’t so heavy.

One half of the new sod placed in my front yard three weeks ago is dying.  D-y-i-n-g.  It costs umpteen dollars and I’m angry as a hot hornet.

But that phrase he used – just be patient – had me doing a deep dive into my psyche.  Usually uncomplaining and even serene (well, sometimes), I had to admit little things were having me in a hissy.

• Why am I impatient?
• What is the virtue in patience?
• And when WILL my new Empire zoysia grass turn green again?

“Patience and fortitude,” my father said when I was growing up.  Turns out, this takeoff on Emerson’s quote, “Patience and fortitude conquer all things,”  was something my blue-collared dad might have known something about even if he didn’t go to college.  Bet getting impatient wasn’t a real smart choice while working the night shift on the General Motors assembly line for 34 years.

If, like me, you find yourself edgy, annoyed, irritated and intolerant, take heed of two additional thoughts I gathered to help me get over this little rough patch of mine:

“Patience is the companion of wisdom.” St. Augustine

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.  Do not now seek the answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them.

And the point is to live everything.  Live the questions.” Rainer Maria Rilke, Austro-German lyric poet.

Live the questions!  Well, that’s different.  For you that might be:

• When will a career break come your way?
• How can you change your life and be happier?
• What new dimensions could a sabbatical add to your work and life?

Timing has to do with everything. Rather than get all worked up when big action steps aren’t just around the corner, you and I can learn to be content with loving the questions.  I really like the idea.

Right now, rather than spit fire about the future of the grass, I’m going to spend time living my questions:  How will that grass feel between my toes?  Will I learn to appreciate it every day once it’s green or will I take beautiful, velvet green grass for granted?

What are the questions you need to live?

PS.  Roth is Commander in Chief of New Roots Lawn & Landscapes. Smart, thinks out-of-the-box and enjoyable to work with, Roth is transforming my yard in phases and I love everything we’ve completed.  With an entrepreneurial can-do spirit and belief that brown twigs really do grow back, I bet he doesn’t realize he’s teaching me a lot about patience.