“When you live in the moment, it’s easier to wait. When you trust and have faith, you just know that whatever it is will come when it will come.” ~Kate McGahan

Dear Universe,

I think a lot about how so many of us have trouble living in the moment. We want to know everything and we want to know it now.

Our perfect career? Yes please.

Our soul mate? Yes please.

Our life purpose? Yes, yes, yes please.

I have found we (totally including myself here) have little patience for the unfolding of our blessings—for the natural progression of the path our soul is meant to take.

For some reason, when we decide we want something, we want it immediately.

We make waiting about torturing ourselves, rather than about preparing ourselves. (Tweet that!)

Because waiting is really about preparing. It’s the Universe’s way of making sure we are fully equipped and ready when—insert thing we want here—arrives.

When I look back at how my path has unfolded so far (and let me tell you there have been so many twists and turns it’s almost unbelievable) I can clearly see how everything that happened came exactly when it was supposed to.

Now that’s not to say I could see that at the time. Because I couldn’t.

Truthfully, I could not see how any of it made sense, was a blessing, was connecting. To me it felt like one heartbreak after another, one disappointment after another, one confusing-misstep-totally-out-of-alignment-decision after another, all adding up to one big mess after another.

I didn’t understand why things were happening or not happening. It just felt random, like life was happening to me, not for me.

With time and growth on my side, I can now see that every single moment, every single relationship, every single let down and success, all prepared me for the life I am living today.

I will give an example.

I had a slew of terrible relationships. Those relationships are not anything I would want to relive again and when I look back they feel like they happened three lifetimes ago. At the time, I couldn’t figure out why I was in this bad pattern.

Today, I am oddly grateful for those relationships for one simple reason: I fully appreciate my husband in a way I would not be able to had I not had those experiences.

The same holds true for a former job that created a lot of illness, stress and drama. Coming out on the other side makes me enjoy what I am doing now so much more.

I could go on and on, but I don’t think I need to.

The point is if the things I have now arrived earlier than they did, I might not have been ready for them. Scratch that. I know I wouldn’t have been ready for them.

Time prepared me. In that time I learned so much about myself—about what I believe and what’s true for me. I learned about how I want to live and be in the world. I learned true, deep, unwavering gratitude for life and not to take anything for granted.

I learned that I don’t ever want to stop learning.

I try to remind myself of this when I feel impatient in the here and now.

As soon as I find myself wanting to know how it’s all going to come together, work out, unfold, I try to stop and remind myself that right now is all that’s guaranteed. When I question why things are happening the way they are, I try to remind myself that up until this point, things have worked better than I could have hoped and that worrying didn’t make the journey any easier.

And I try to remind myself that just for today, I can put tomorrow on hold.

Tomorrow will be here before I know it, and I don’t want to miss what I’m supposed to be learning in the now.

These reminders reset my energy to bring me back to the present moment.

Let’s trust that what we need—not what we want—comes to us at the right time. Let’s live believing and knowing that we don’t have to torment ourselves about tomorrow.

We can embrace today and trust the path we are paving will make sense—maybe not when we want it to, but exactly when we need it to.

With Gratitude,