Patience Taught by Nature – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“O dreary life,” we cry, “O dreary life!”
And still the generations of the birds
Sing through our sighing, and the flocks and herds
Serenely live while we are keeping strife
With Heaven’s true purpose in us, as a knife
Against which we may struggle! Ocean girds
Unslackened the dry land, savannah-swards
Unweary sweep, hills watch unworn, and rife
Meek leaves drop yeary from the forest-trees,
To show, above, the unwasted stars that pass
In their old glory: O thou God of old!
Grant me some smaller grace than comes to these!—
But so much patience as a blade of grass
Grows by, contented through the heat and cold.

While I don’t believe we need to ask or demand anything of God, I love Browning’s poem on the matter of purpose and patience. All needs and wants cease the moment you begin to live on purpose. In fact, when you live on purpose you no longer seek fulfillment, for the revelation of heaven’s true purpose through you is the only true source of fulfillment. When you live on purpose you will find everything you were looking for and more!