Worth the Wait

When I was a kid, before the days of the internet and video recorders (yes, there was such a time) I would wait eagerly all year to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. I was mesmerized by Tom Turkey, the Garfield balloon and Santa in his snow goose sleigh. We also had to wait all year for "Miracle on 34th Street" and I envied the little girl in the movie for living on the parade route. That movie was worth watching even if only to see Santa whack that smug shrink with his cane. If you had the tragic misfortune to miss those holiday specials, you had to resign yourself to a year of waiting.
This year, I missed the parade on Thanksgiving, but the next day on my way home from work I saw a cloud formation that bore a remarkable resemblance to a line of parade animal balloons, (see photo below). I clearly saw a baby elephant, whale, snail, duck and rabbit.  Or maybe my imagination is just over developed from reading "The Hobbit" one too many times.
Instead of settling for and marrying the first schlep we meet, sometimes it pays to wait for the person we want. Chocolate needs time to ferment and I assume croissants require time to rise (I don’t know because they sound way too difficult to make).
I believe that in this world of instant gratification, some things are just worth the wait.

Grace Under Pressure

Was it Hemingway who said, "Courage is grace under pressure"? I don't enjoy Ernest but I love the Rush album that I assume was named for the quote. Grace under pressure describes the word equanimity. Equanimity is my favorite word. Do all people have favorite words or only those of us who read encyclopedias and dictionaries for relaxation?
Have you ever been in a hurry and the person in front of you is driving twenty mph under the speed limit as if he hasn't noticed that he is no longer driving  a covered wagon? At this point we can behave in a way that would make Cruella de Vil look like Mr. Rogers or we can remain calm and attempt to find some humor in the situation. Unless there is an obvious, immediate solution, sometimes we can strengthen our characters by tolerating inconvenience with equanimity. It also helps to put what's irritating us into perspective. When considering all of the real tragedies that occur, are we really justified in having a cow over an inconvenience? I think not.