The Patience of Flour

I spent all of Saturday morning trying to fix a leaky faucet. My hands were covered in grease, and I was losing my temper with a wrench that simply wouldn’t turn. I kept thinking about how much I wanted it to be finished, how I just wanted the problem to disappear so I could move on to the next thing on my list. But then I stopped. I sat on the kitchen floor and watched the dust motes dancing in a beam of sunlight. I realized that my frustration came from wanting the result without respecting the work. We live in such a hurry, always rushing toward the finish line, forgetting that the most meaningful things in life require a slow, steady rhythm. Whether it is fixing a home or building a life, there is a quiet dignity in the time we spend waiting for things to set, to rise, or to mend. What if we stopped measuring our days by how much we finished, and started measuring them by how much care we put into the process?

Petrana Nedelcheva has captured this beautiful sense of dedication in her image titled Sourdough Croissants. It reminds me that the best things are rarely rushed. Does this image make you think of a project you’ve poured your own time into?