Patience Is Everything

   Patience is a virtue that very few of us have obtained or, if we ever had it, we have forgotten how to use it.  The world is caught up in a rat race with people demanding everything they want, how they want and when they want.  It is mindboggling, to say the least.  Thankfully down here on the Bayou, things are different.  When you pull yourself out of that rat race, you start to enjoy life as it is and not how others think it should be.  Here, patience is not only a virtue, it is everything.  I have relearned that over the years in so many ways.  Patience is everything.

  This morning before the others were awake, I did my usual walk to the pier.  Since I was alone (even the cat stayed in the warm bed), I had the place to myself.  I sat in the middle near the wallowed out cut where we usually moor the old boat.  Now that it was out at the end of the pier, the shallows were filled with bull minnows and a lone Clapper Rail.  This bird is a friend that will come out to visit if I linger long.  The bird and I had an ideal "conversation" even though it was a bit one-sided.  I talked to the bird.  The bird ate bull minnows. 

  After a good twenty minutes of this, I heard the whirring of wings and, to my surprise, 5 Snowy Egrets came into the same cut.  There, not 10 feet from me, were the most beautiful birds!  I was almost afraid to breathe lest I frighten them!  After a bit, I slightly shifted my position so I could move the camera to their angle.  The birds did not fret.  After dozens upon dozens of photographs, I started gently talking to these fine friends.  This did not seem to bother them, either!  In fact, one flew up on the pier near me.  Goodness!  For the next hour, I sat on the pier watching the egrets.  I sat even though my legs were cramping from the cold pier.  I sat even though my fingers felt like ice.  I sat even though the morning was slowly slipping away and I needed to be doing chores.  I sat.  Patiently, I sat so as to not frighten the birds.

  After nearly 40 minutes (and 155 photographs), the birds decided it was time to fly to the back of the Bayou.  I was cold and achy but my patience had been truly rewarded.  Patience is a virtue.  Patience is everything.