Patience is indeed a virtue. I think because it is one of the things I must learn to master, every day I am sent a little situation which tests my patience. "Take a breath, stand back, pause", I tell myself... but it isn't always that easy. Meditation really helps and thankfully I am much less impetuous than I was in my youth. Yet I still feel frustrated when things in life often take longer than expected...and my "To Do" list just keeps growing. I think the problem is we live in a "I want it all. I want it now!" society (thank you Queen for making those words in to a rock anthem!). It is because our expectations are often too high. We set ourselves deadlines and targets and feel disappointed when we cannot meet them. Yoga teaches us, if we have no expectations and simply live in the moment then there is no disappointment only the joys of making the most of each moment as it comes to us. My wonderful partner and I have been working on our new kitchen, it is almost finished. However, instead of taking 6 weeks, it has taken 12 weeks of hard work and manual labour. Every day a new challenge would test our patience - whether it was waiting for a component or learning plumbing or how to work with a hundred year old property. Some walls crumbled, others were undrillable....all we could do is go with the flow...just keep trying, persevere and we will see the fruits of our hard labour. Yoga, as always, has all the answers. The philosophy and ways of living are there to guide us through all the areas of our life...even the frustrations of building a kitchen can turn in to the joys of cooking and showing our loved ones just how much we care.