I'm Adeli Mom and this is the slowdown.

I've never been good at patience.

I don't like waiting, never have.

I have come up with tools to become more patient.

I've learned to meditate in waiting rooms and long lines.

I travel a lot, so much of my life is spent navigating layovers and trying to pass the

time with books and phone calls and emails while in the limbo of air travel.

Still, my personality is prone to immediacy.

I can imagine stomping my feet and bawling my hands into fists and saying, now, now, now,

now.

But now doesn't always come when you want it.

Now can feel a little like limbo.

The present moment isn't always full of pleasure.

Sometimes it's not that great.

Being just recovered from COVID, I can tell you I was growing in-patient with the days

of being sick, of having to rest and isolate, and I was ready to go back into the world.

I told my husband that I had read the whole internet and there was nothing left to read

online anymore, and so I napped.

But patience is something that I can learn, not always from other people, but from plants

and animals.

I watch as the birds and sweet grass wait for the drought to be over, or the hostas and

hydrangeas droop in anxious anticipation of rain.

...