What does an 8-year-old’s nighttime ice cream run have in common with grief? More than you’d think. In this episode, Ray shares a childhood memory of facing fear in the dark and beautifully weaves it into the emotional experience of loss. Drawing wisdom from poets Rainer Maria Rilke, Emily Dickinson, and Langston Hughes, he explores how the darkness of grief doesn’t defeat us—it trains us to see in new ways. This powerful episode invites listeners to stop resisting the night and instead, learn to walk through it with courage, patience, and hope. For anyone in mourning, this is a tender reminder: darkness doesn’t last, and the dawn is already on its way.
patience
When It’s Raining Let It Rain
Sometimes we are in situations we have to patiently endure. There is no viable alternative. We can get angry with the situation. We can get angry with people we believe are responsible for the situation. Or, we can be content with what we are doing and seek to define our happiness within our present context. If we make our happiness a bargain chip in situations we can’t change, we’ll lose and remain anxious, angry, and unhappy. American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow put it this way: “For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.” And, ancient Chinese wisdom says, “Endure for a moment, and the storm will pass; take a step back, and the sea and sky will open wide.”
Healthy Tips: Patience Matters When Trying to Make a Change
Be patient with yourself: It takes time to make lasting changes.
The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote, “The soft overcomes the hard. The slow overcomes the fast.” And, he also wrote, “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
It’s difficult to be patient in a society that demands the opposite, we clamor for results now, or else. When we’re patient with ourselves, certain of our goal, committed to making sustain effort, and allow our progress to by guided by what we are learning on the journey, we will be successful.
Healthy Tips: Make Learning a Lifelong Habit
Today’s Health Tip:
Learn something new: Keep your mind active by learning new things.
When I was in grade school my mom would ask me each day, “Ray, what did you learn today?” Every once in a while I replied, “Nothing.” She’d give me a look and said, “You must have learned something.” Well, I wasn’t going to tell her what my friend Charlie told me, so I thought about what happened in the classroom and said something. When I finished she’d always say, “Make sure you learn something every day.” That was good advice then. It’s good advice now. I think the more difficult the learning curve, the better it is for us. When learning is difficult, we have to concentrate. We have to be willing to fail and start over. We have to have patience with ourselves. And, we have to apply one of my core principles, NEVER QUIT.
How Patient Are You?
I don’t consider myself the patient type. It seems as if life is always trying to teach me to be more patient. Why was the driver in front of me only going 44 MPH in a 45 zone when everyone else knows 50 is new 45 – LOL. When I go to the market I inevitably pick the lane where someone decides to pay by check. Sometimes I feel like saying put it on my tab – that’s crossing the line for an intervention. Life refuses to listen to my complaints. Maybe I’ll make patience a new year’s resolution. Can’t do it, it will take too long to happen. I hope you’ve more patience than me. From what I hear it’s supposed to be a good thing.
Striving for Simplicity, Patience, & Compassion
“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Today’s Quote: Keep on Grinding
Your edge is your willingness to do the work that others won’t. ~ Ian Cassel
Today’s Thought: The Dark Night Will Pass
Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise. ~ Victor Hugo
Who hasn’t experienced a dark night? If you haven’t experienced a dark night there’s one up ahead waiting for you. It comes with living. We can’t run away and hide from troubles, they’ll find us sooner or later. We’re called to engage with life. When we meet life head on with its joys and sorrows, we become stronger, more resilient. We know if we are patient and endure through our troubles, we will triumph over them. It’s the way of life.
Today’s Thought: C’Mon, Chill
I know some folks who make everything into a fight. A kid cuts across their lawn, they get upset. A dog poops on their lawn, call out the Marines. If they have to wait for a table at a restaurant, they’ll leave and go through a drive through. They’re angry people. They haven’t learned how to work through issues with others without having winners and losers. Working with others takes a bit of work and patience. When we follow through on it, we create or maintain friendships, and we accomplish a lot more.
Today’s Poem: On His Blindness by John Milton
On His Blindness
John Milton
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg’d with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: “God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
