I’m really not one who is that hip on using any type of slogans throughout my life, but in the case of an episode that happened recently with my landlord, the phrase “Good Things Come To Those Who Wait” applied magnificently.
I did some research to try to find the origin of this phrase and discovered it actually is considered an English proverb that was most likely derived from a Biblical verse (Lamentations 3:25) that read as follows, “God is good to those who wait for him, to the one who seeks him.” Ironically, it was used and adapted several thousand years later by Heinz for the adverting of their ketchup back in the 1980s. Since then, it has become a widely used English phrase that people seem to use quite often to extol the virtue of patience. And with regards to my landlord, that is a virtue I have been seriously challenged with.
My landlord, who is also my roommate, most likely falls on the exact opposite side of the spectrum as me in regards to maintaining household chores in a timely fashion. Vacuuming, dusting, cleaning the bathroom, and doing laundry are all things I normally keep up with before any of their maintenance gets out of control. And thankfully, I have the complete ability to stay on top of all of those things within my landlord’s home without any of them ever getting out of control. But unfortunately, there is one task that is not within my own ability to maintain and control and that’s the mowing of the yard outside.
I like to spend quite a bit of time outside in the backyard of any house I’ve resided in. Last year, my landlord paid me to cut the grass and keep up the yard maintenance so this was never an issue. Much of the summer of 2012, one would find me out back enjoying the sunlight, or having a fire in the pit, or just keeping the grounds looking nice. But this year, that changed as he took it upon himself to add the yard maintenance to his long list of things that he already had trouble staying on top of. I still haven’t figured out to this day why he struggles with keeping up with his own laundry, cleaning, and various other chores, given that I see him with plenty of time where he’s just watching television or surfing the internet. But I have come to a place where I have had to accept the fact that we are just two very different people and that’s just who he is for right now in his life. Sadly though, this has seriously affected my usage of the yard this year as the grass has gone for many weeks at a time without being cut.
There are days that my patience has worn thin when I’ve seen my landlord sitting around the house on a beautifully sunny day where the grass was six inches high or greater. And sitting outside in that high of grass is never much fun as it draws a lot of bugs. The control issues I continue to work on within myself have at these times taken over and led me to verbally judge my roommate and start an argument about the yard. Most of my attempts to ask if I could just cut it myself have been denied and instead, day in and day out, it remains uncut. I’ve often wondered if its a pride thing for my landlord but I have no data to back that up. These past few weeks, since returning from my last trip to my partner’s house, I have forced myself to try a different path that didn’t involve my attempts at control and confrontation. And instead, it involved patience. Day in and day out, I’d return home and see the grass was still uncut. As the anger stirred within me, I’d immediately start sending love, forgiveness, and peace to my roommate through my prayers. Ironically, after three weeks of this, with the grass still not being cut, he finally reached out and asked me if I could cut it for him and he’d even pay me $20 to do so. I was shocked at first but then became extremely grateful to realize that good things really do come to those who wait. Through those many prayers and patience, I was able to expel all the anger from within me and reach a moment where God intervened and somehow motivated my landlord to ask me for help. So I did just that and got a nice cut yard to enjoy some moments being in again.
The moral here is simple. If you are finding yourself struggling with any aspect in your life, I encourage you to take a moment, breathe, and try to practice a little bit of patience with whatever it is. The more you do this, the more you might just find as I did, that good things really do come to those who wait.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
