Watercolor of seedlings in pots on a sunny windowsill growing in stages to a ripe tomato, with hands watering them under the words Easy Does It!

Easy Does It!

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Watercolor of seedlings in pots on a sunny windowsill growing in stages to a ripe tomato, with hands watering them under the words Easy Does It!“There is a time for everything. We should learn to wait patiently for the right time. Easy does it.”

That’s from this morning’s Meditation for the Day in Twenty-Four Hours a Day. Three little words at the end, and they carry a lot of weight. Easy does it.

Most of us didn’t arrive in recovery as patient people. We wanted relief now, our jobs back now, our family’s trust back now, and a new life delivered by Friday. The same reading goes on: “We waste our energies in trying to get things before we are ready to have them.” I can relate to that one!

Here’s the good news. Patience isn’t something you either have or don’t. It’s a skill, and like any skill, it grows with practice.

The test comes first

The Pot Luck share in today’s Your Daily Reprieve opens with a line that made me smile: “Life is tough because you get the test first and then the lesson.”

The writer explains that “if we don’t learn the lesson, we get another test, then another, and another, until we learn the lesson.” That’s patience in a nutshell. Every red light, every slow checkout line, and every “not yet” is a little test. Each one is a chance to practice.

Today’s Daily Ponderables put it plainly in its Closing Thought: “I can be patient when things are moving at my pace, grateful when life is going well, and accepting when people agree with me. The real test comes when I have to wait, when someone sees things differently, or when my best efforts don’t turn out as I hoped.”

Years ago I wrote a post called Contradictions that opened with a quote from St. Francis de Sales I still love. When we run into difficulties, he said, “Do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.” Gentleness and time. That’s Easy Does It with a little more poetry.

Patience is not sitting still

Now, Easy Does It doesn’t mean do nothing. In another old post, Doors Open and Close…, I wrote, “Waiting for the perfect answer leaves room for missed opportunity.” And in Success-Full, Living Life with Purpose: Recovery Mode, I put it this way: “Deciding to leap and not taking action leaves you in the same place you started!”

So which is it, wait or act? Both. We do our part today, and we let the results come in their own time. A gardener waters the seed every day but doesn’t dig it up every morning to check on the roots.

Scripture gives us a gentle reminder that our timing isn’t the only timing:

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, ESV)

Twenty-Four Hours a Day says it with real hope too: “We can believe that God has a plan for our lives and that this plan will work out in the fullness of time.” That isn’t a reason to worry. It’s a reason to relax a little and keep showing up.

Gratitude makes the waiting easier

One of the best things I know to do while I wait is to say thank you for what I already have. Today’s Courage to Change reading suggests making a gratitude list, maybe even writing it down, and adds, “Sometimes a tiny action can be a great step toward seeing my life with increasing joy.”

Your Daily Reprieve also shared this from Elaine Hibbard: “By giving heartfelt thanks for all the good we now have, through the magnetism that gratitude creates, we will start attracting more good into our daily life.”

And today’s Dynamic Catholic reflection, from Matthew Kelly’s Feminine Genius, reminds us that the good we’re waiting for isn’t always somewhere out ahead of us: “Your Feminine Genius is not out there somewhere waiting for you to find it. It is within you waiting to be lived.”

Gratitude turns waiting into living. You stop counting the days and start making the days count.

Five ways to practice Easy Does It today

  • Name your “not yet.” Write down one thing you’re impatient about. Then write one small action you can take on it today, and let the rest go.
  • Use the red lights. Every time you have to wait today, in traffic, in line, or on hold, take one slow breath and say, “Easy does it.”
  • Make a quick gratitude list. Jot down five things you’re grateful for right now, big or small. Read it again tonight.
  • Watch your thoughts; don’t wrestle them. Dan Millman’s line from today’s Reprieve helps here: “You don’t have to control your thoughts; you just have to stop letting them control you.”
  • Look for the lesson. When something goes sideways, ask, “What is this test trying to teach me?” Learn it once, and you won’t need the retake.

Enjoy the ride

Over 40 years in human services have shown me that the people who grow the most aren’t always the fastest. They’re the ones who keep coming back, keep doing the next right thing, and trust the process. In Recovery Thinking, 90-Days to Change Your Life! I wrote, “Recovery is a process, a lifelong process! But it is worth it!”

In Mastery Starts Now, I said it as simply as I could: “One day at a time, life gets better and better!” And in Success-Full I wrote, “Success is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy the ride!”

So slow down a little today. Water the seed. Say thank you. Let God handle the calendar. Life is GOOOOOOOD!!!

Here’s my question for you: What are you waiting on right now, and what is one small thing you can do today while you wait?

Go, Go, Go… Dan 🙂

Books quoted in this post:

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A note on anonymity: Although I write about Al-Anon and recovery literature here, nothing in this post should be taken to imply my membership in any specific mutual support group, in keeping with Tradition Eleven.

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Reflection note: I wrote this from my own daily readings. Quotes belong to their original authors and sources (Twenty-Four Hours a Day, October 30, Hazelden, via Daily Ponderables; the Closing Thought, via Daily Ponderables; Courage to Change, October 30, Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, via Daily Ponderables; the Pot Luck share and quotes from Elaine Hibbard and Dan Millman, via Your Daily Reprieve; Matthew Kelly, Feminine Genius, via the Dynamic Catholic Daily Reflection; St. Francis de Sales; Ecclesiastes 3:1, English Standard Version; Success-Full, Living Life with Purpose: Recovery Mode; Recovery Thinking, 90-Days to Change Your Life!). I used AI to help organize it and reviewed it before posting.

Image created with AI assistance.