Be Patient. Pay Attention

This today from Anne Lamott, Help, Thanks, Wow:

“Most of us figure out by a certain age – some of us later than others – that life unspools in cycles, some lovely, some painful, but in no predictable order.  So you could have lovely, painful, and painful again, which I think we all agree is not at all fair.  You don’t have to like it, and you are always welcome to file a brief with the Complaints Department.  But if you’ve been around awhile, you know that much of the time, if you are patient and are paying attention, you will see that God will restore what the locusts have taken away.”

This rings true to me on many fronts, but the two most significant things that jump out of the text for me are 1) “if you are patient” and 2) “if you are paying attention.”  I suppose these jump out at me as I rarely meet either condition.  Still, I think it is true that “much of the time” (not all of the time) “God will restore what the locusts have taken away.”  The restoration may not be exactly the same, and let’s face it, it isn’t always to my tastes, preferences, or likings, but it is restoration nonetheless.  Be patient.  Pay attention.