There are times in life we have to wait for things to change. It is not that we don’t understand that things take time, the challenge is often in the in-between period of wait. It will serve us well to be aware of whether we are waiting with tolerance or with patience. Though they appear similar on the surface, if we reflect upon it, they vastly differ within.

Tolerance comes from a space of subtle stress. We live with a feeling of not wanting something and therefore tolerate it, having no choice. Patience, on the other hand, comes from a space of faith. We live with the understanding that things take time, and if we are consistently giving our best, things will change for the better.

Tolerance often breeds impatience. Our dissatisfaction over a situation cannot sustain long and we tend to snap. Patience, however, breeds love – our willingness and ability to give someone their time and space out of love, knowing that we need to patiently wait because we care.

Tolerance is living with the paradigm that we don’t have a choice and are forced into having to wait and be tolerant. Patience comes from the deeper understanding that we have chosen to align ourselves with the universal law of life – between cause and effect, there is a space.

Life will always build us by testing us. The way we endure the space between where we are and where we want things to be determines our growth and quality of life. We can either be agitated and tolerant or optimistic and patient. And the test lies in a simple fact – tolerance waits for things to close, patience waits for things to open.

(Picture – Montreux, Switzerland)