Patience, Constancy and Understanding

Again from the letter of the Regnum Christi General Director..

The subtitle for this part was "Suffer patiently our neighbor's shortcomings." -- Doesn't sound all too appealing for a mass non practicing Catholic market-- like most of my friends who could possibly be reading this blog haha :)) Funny story-- Yesterday as we were hanging out in Margie's room I remember a tag to a Yoga activity in The Farm that will be facilitated by Cara Ocampo-- Here's how that conversation goes:

Ina: "Kace, you want to go to a Yoga RETREAT?"
Kace : Face blank with a tinge of disgust
Ina: "No, no, not a retreat-- A Yoga WEEKEND. Its at The Farm in Batangas, someone put it on facebook. They have healthy food and yoga sessions. It'll be nice, I think it's around 4k....."
Pam: "Alam mo naman the word RETREAT scares ate!"

Hence, Patience, Constancy and Understanding might be a friendlier title :)

The line in the passage that I really liked goes --"If God has placed him there beside me, if God has allowed him to work and live near me, then he will give me the graces I need to accept and love him as he is."


I know how difficult this may be especially for people like me who expect so many things out of life. My mom always tells me that I have all these images in my mind, so many clouds in my head. I guess this comes from all the dreaming I do. I have all these ideal notions in my head and I try to reach them as much as possible. A good thing or a bad thing? I'm not quite sure yet. I guess the good thing about it is I reach for my dreams, I have the initiative to make it happen. Its the only way to change-- and I like that, I like moving forward, I like knowing the things I want and making them happen. Now the part where I want too many things-- too many ideas that its so scattered and whether its really what I truly want or is it what I think would impress or please others is a different discussion in itself.
The downside, sometimes I can be too overbearing. Especially to those closest to me. I'm so focused on my ideals that I want everyone around me, everyone concerned to follow suit. Arrogance on my part, that my ideal is ideal for everyone. I forget sometimes that other people are not as quirky as I am. They've gone through different circumstances in their lives and as a result picked up different lessons in their journey from what I have. Let me think of an example--- Let's say a boyfriend hits his girlfriend. Immediately we think "He's an asshole" I would think that he has no respect for women and he is an evil person and every bad word you can pick out of the dictionary. Thats because if I were him, and I did that to someone, those are the emotions that would be running in my head. But you are not that person. What if that person grew up in a household where his Dad would hit his mom constantly, maybe for him hitting someone meant teaching them discipline and in effect displaying their love. A thought I cannot comprehend because those were not the circumstances I experienced. I am in no way condoning this kind of behavior.. I apologize for the bad example but it was the only one I could think about.

A little bit of understanding goes a long way. I know sometimes I forget to take the time to understand.. especially when I am so engrossed with my own worries, my own insecurities. That's why I'm finding that all this time I'm spending at home and focusing on my self and at work-- really taking a lot of junk out of my life-- has helped me focus more. Regain my composure. Virtues are like muscles, they need exercise.