Patience and Compassion

I hope you all had a great weekend. I have been fostering 4 kittens for the last few weeks. It has been harder than I thought it would be however it has been gratifying as well. They have been my teachers.

I am not able to keep any of these kittens due to a severe allergy in my family so the practice of non-attachment (which is essentially “holding the experience lightly”) has been very present for me. Part of that non-attachment practice has been focusing on what my job as a foster actually is;  building a bridge between their chaotic beginning and their happy ending.

To create this “bridge” that they can cross over to their best selves they need two basic things; patience and compassion. When they first arrived in our home they were running away from our touch and very scared. Now they run up to us meowing to be picked up or they roll over to get belly rubs. This took only a few weeks of consistent patience and compassion.

The Buddhist tradition specifies that how we treat others we should also treat ourselves so that is what I reminded all my students of this week on the mat. In order to become our “best selves” both off the mat and on we need the same two ingredients; patience with where we are right now and compassion for ourselves. When we constantly judge and criticize ourselves or get angry and frustrated with our bodies we pull ourselves away from who we can be both on the mat and off. 

When we extend that patience and compassion to ourselves, we then find it easier to offer to others. After class one day this week I received this beautiful text from one of my students. “Hi there, just a quick story. I went to return something and there was a problem. The cashier was trying so hard to rectify and called her boss and the manager. In the end it all worked out fine. I said to them; ‘look, with patience and compassion we got through this’. They thanked me for bringing that to their attention. I thank you for bringing that to my attention.” This is how the bridge continues to be built for all of us. 

I have noticed the couple of times over these last weeks I have felt exasperated with the managing of 4 tiny kittens. At those times they definitely sensed it and pulled back, retreating a few steps. But then, with renewed patience and compassion, they continued forward once again. The same works for us. We may have those moments, those thoughts of anger or frustration, those old patterns pulling us a few steps back, however its what we do then that is the practice. We have the opportunity to remind ourselves once again to be patient and compassionate; with our changing bodies, with the present moment and most importantly with ourselves.