Patience, Bus Stops and Dharma

How often do you have those 'What should I be doing with my life?' moments? 

I can't say I'm terribly prone to them but I've had a fair few over the last year as Husband and I have been pondering new cities, countries and jobs. Big life decisions don't, oddly enough, tend to stress me out all that much. I'm a glass-half full person and I trust that the doors that are meant to open or shut will do just that. 

I just get really fidgety when I have to wait for life to unfold - or for multinational corporations and estate agents to pull their fingers out. If the little scrolling screen at the bus stop tells me it's 3 minutes until the Number 319 arrives, I'll speed walk to the next stop because I can't hack waiting around. I like to get on with things. Now.

So patience is not a virtue I possess in abundance, but the last year has been a great lesson in it. I've tried to transform being narked about situations that are out off my control into a spiritual discipline of trying to realise two things more deeply:  That the universe does not revolve around me  - or rather it doesn't whizz by at the speed I'd like it to; and that invariably God has a perfectly excellent plan for me, I just need to wait and get on board as and when things unfold.

Buddhists and Hindus I've been chatting to recently have spoken about their Buddha-Dharma and Santana-Dharma in a similar way. I've found that some Buddhists and Hindus - and  a fair few Sikhs - use the term dharma  to describe both a person's own life path and the harmonious movement of the universe. Life is about understanding your particular dharma in the context of the bigger picture and getting on with it. I like the idea of my life getting caught up in the bigger picture of creation.

Cosmology aside, I'll finish with a wonderfully pragmatic verse that has been scribbled on a Post-It note on my computer screen since roughly this time last year:

"Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (James 4 v 13-14)