On Patience & Persistence

Today, as I write this, it is the Autumnal Equinox. What’s notable about the Equinox is that as the sun shines directly on the equator, the northern and southern hemispheres receive the same amount of rays. But our experience is so different, depending on which hemisphere we live in! In a way, this time of year invites contemplation on our perspective: how, depending on where “we are” literally and metaphorically, the same thing can feel very different.

This perspective taking brings me to a story about a spider who lives outside my kitchen window.

I have been accompanying this spider for weeks now, through sunshine, wind, and rain. Once, I caught a glimpse of her; but generally I only see evidence of her patience and persistence through the fruits of her labor: the continuous weaving and reweaving of her web, and the occasional catch. She must work at night as I never see her during the day, except for that one time. Some mornings, her web is torn and shredded like an ancient and fragile piece of precious cloth. On other days, it is a perfectly symmetrical weave of the finest silver threads.

I'm inspired and encouraged by her dedication and her trust in the cycles of weaving and reweaving. She's come to exemplify for me what Sarah Ban Breathnach calls "the Tao of success," in her book Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy.

This is the Tao of success—the way—and like every other truth, it’s at once very simple and very difficult.
Not the understanding as much as the doing, because the Tao of success is Patience and Persistence."

- Sarah Ban Breathnach

This little spider, she also reminds that, as Thich Nhat Hanh noted, in the midst of life's struggles miracles abound.

Around us, life bursts forth with miracles
a glass of water,
a ray of sunshine,
a leaf,
a caterpillar,
a flower,
laughter,
raindrops.
If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere.
Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles.

Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms;
ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap;
a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos;
a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings.

When we are tired and feel discouraged by life's daily struggles,
we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.
Thich Nhat Hanh