Patience as Pendulum
Is patience a virtue, a healing salve, or a vice, a catalyst for tolerating incompetence? I pondered this question greatly in the moments leading up to the call for Issue 2 and for weeks after as I read through the submissions and consumed the art voraciously.
In looking at the depth in which patience was stripped and examined, I realized it was simply a spectrum between action and inaction. Action could be a positive, a guiding force towards taking that next step and seizing the moment. Carpe Diem! It could also be a negative, that false start to a race because we sprinted before we had to. Likewise, inaction did not necessarily have to have a negative connotation when we thought about it. It could be a season of laying the groundwork and sowing seeds that would later sprout when the harvest came.
Each piece exposed me to various manifestations of patience: in love, our expectations of aging, dysfunctional family dynamics, and expressions of identity. The visual pieces themselves, some soothing, others merging tension with serenity, revealed that patience is what we make of it, as is life. Within the continuum of everything in between is what patience can and should be. The process of deciphering patience for the self is gritty, maybe long, but overall rewarding. I may not be able to fully tell you whether my inquiries going into this Issue emerged as one definitive answer. That is for you, the reader, to ponder over as you reflect on what you chance upon and then, if possible, ask your question of what patience is to you.
—Price Maccarthy, Wellspringwords Writing Fellow & Issue 1 Contributor
Price Maccarthy (she/her) is a visually impaired writer from Ghana and Nigeria with a penchant for autobiographical prose and poetry. She hopes to someday fully pen her — sometimes comical but often hard-hitting — life experiences into a piece she is proud of. For this issue, she appreciates opportunities to reflect on her experiences in cultivating a balance between action and waiting. Apart from living for the art of chronic procrastination, Price loves good food, books that make her cry, and dark humor (no pun intended). Price is also a 2024 Wellspringwords Writing Fellow.
