I’d like to focus on persistence in this post. Persistence isn’t one of those big, flashy qualities that gets a lot of attention, but it goes to the very core of what makes life work. The universe surely needs persistence to keep its various galaxies and systems operating as they should. The redwood tree, just starting out on its journey, a little wisp of a thing perhaps 3 feet tall, is obviously going to need persistence to reach its true potential.

And so it is for us.

Calvin Coolidge, the 30th US president, had this to say about persistence. “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

My wife, JoAnn, belongs to a quilting group that calls itself the Finishing Club. JoAnn joined this group about two years ago because — one reason at least — she has quite a lot of quilts stashed away in hidden places here and there that never quite made it to the finish line. She thought, correctly, that being in this group would motivate her.

When she left home an hour or so ago to attend this morning’s meeting of this group in the basement of a local church, my wife took with her a quilt that has a rather special significance for her. She actually began this quilt 20 years ago. It was the first quilt she ever made, or perhaps I should say, attempted, and it got her started in quilting — but it remained unfinished and forgotten as new projects and new possibilities came along.

I should mention that JoAnn hit upon the idea of quilting at a time in her life when she was in a transition, wondering what she should do after retiring from Shell. One day she thought to herself, “I like to sew. Perhaps I would like to quilt.” She found she liked to quilt very much, and it quickly became not just a hobby, but a passion — a way of life.

In any case, a week or two ago, JoAnn decided enough is enough, and she set to work in earnest to finish this particular quilt that, as you can imagine, has a very special meaning for her. As she left home to go to the quilters’ meeting an hour or two ago, she was very much looking forward to displaying this finished quilt — to the accompaniment of a drumroll, perhaps, and loud cries of “well done.”

Personally, I love this particular quality we call persistence. In the face of life’s tribulations and setbacks, persistence is the only thing that kept me going at times. I’m sure this has been true for you also.

We may be used to giving thanks for things that we have in an external sense, for the material blessings that come along in our life. Let us take a moment to give sincere and grateful thanks for something that does not have any external form — except perhaps the form we give it in our own lives — but is an immense blessing nonetheless: The truth of persistence.

Persistence is part of your true nature. It is part of our true character.

Think about it. Someone, or something might have made a mistake, you know, and amidst the confusion of creating, forgotten all about the need for persistence. No, I don’t want to think about it. The very idea makes me feel very uncomfortable and ill at ease.

I’m going to let Confucius have the last word on this topic. He said, however many years ago this was, “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”

Actually, best of all would be if you have the last word. What do you think about this post? Has persistence played an important part in your life? Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or share the post with friends. Until next time – keep on keeping on.

In honor of persistence — what can take its place? is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Living with grace at any age

I was sitting at the breakfast table with JoAnn this morning, wondering what I was going to write about in my blog today — feeling a bit pensive, too, about some challenges that have come up for us in recent weeks — when JoAnn got up from her chair and put her arms around me. “I love you Papa Bear,” she said. It’s a term of endearment that we often use. I call her Momma Bear — she calls me Papa Bear.

It was just a sweet little gesture of affection and love, but it touched me. And it made me think of something. If this blog is to have any real meaning, it will be because to whatever extent is possible to me I offer a current of comfort and assurance – enjoyment, too, hopefully — to those who visit.

Are you facing a challenge in your life? A difficult circumstance? A troubled feeling? A feeling of futility, perhaps, or anger, or hopelessness, or loneliness –”quiet desperation,” as Thoreau once expressed it? Whatever may be going on in your life, I’m here to say that integrity and persistence will bring you through.

I see integrity as the willingness to listen, really listen, to what the voice of truth in my own heart is saying in the moment, and follow that impulse no matter where it leads. Mind you, I have to be still enough to hear. Does it want me to change my mind on something? I will change my mind. Does it want me to return, in a moment of mental or emotional turmoil, to stillness? I will return.

Persistence? Persistence, of course, is the gift, or quality, present in every one of us, which makes it possible for us to be true to ourselves and our dream — to our own integrity. Of course, persistence can be used wrongly, like anything else. Hitler, I suppose, was a persistent fellow. But we will not be true to ourselves and our true mission in this life without it.

There is a beautiful quote from the British poet, William Wordsworth that goes like this:

“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that arises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.”

Is fear a burden? Is financial distress a burden? Is illness a burden, whether physical or mental? No matter what challenges face us — these two great friends, integrity and persistence, will bring you through

What is called for by spirit in the moment may be a very simple thing – like putting an arm around our spouse. But little steps add up. We find increasingly, in the words of St. Catherine of Siena, “every step on the path to Heaven is Heaven.”

Integrity and persistence will bring you through is a post from: The Happy Seeker - Living with grace at any age