Lessons in Patience

I'm not a particularly patient person. Watercolor painting is changing this.

Things I've learned:

• It takes many tries to learn how to load a brush with just the right amount of color and the right amount of water.

• You have to wait for the water to dry before applying another color. Or you end up with a mess.

• It takes lots of layers to build up color.

• Plain water erases watercolor paint. Over and over and over again, as long as the paint is still wet. After it's dry, you can use water to tone the color down, or wash it out a bit.

• Sometimes you have to paint a picture many times before you get it just right.

So as I was thinking about this, I thought about how I could apply this newfound wisdom to life. Using my list above, I came up with a new list.

• It takes many tries to learn how to talk to people with just the right amount of speaking and the right amount of listening.

• You have to wait for people to finish their thoughts before jumping in and saying something. I do this to the Man all the time. When he speaks, he often pauses to pull his thoughts together. I take this momentary pause as permission to say what I want to say, right now.

• Sometimes you have to hear something from several different people before you actually believe what they are saying.

• Apologizing can fix a multitude of problems. We're all human. We all make mistakes. We need to fix them.

• Be patient. God isn't finished with me yet.

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D was working on the painting in the bottom photo. She can always tell when I'm losing my patience with watercolor.

I pull out my camera.

Ahhh, much better.