P is for Pacing

As a father of 2 children I know exactly what pacing is. It is the movement one makes while the wife does all the hard work. There really is nothing else a dutiful husband can do other then pace back and forth continuously asking whether any help is required.
Pacing is also being careful at what times a person does certain things. As a Pace Car slows the grid of racing cars down to save accidents we should also pace our lives living for the future as well as for today.
In today's world of instant gratification it is hard to remember that good things take time. (Of course some good things like my book IVRRAC also only take a few seconds with Amazon 1-Click).
Patience is another "P" word and it goes hand in hand with pacing. I am too enticed to the quick and easy ways of our world but I know that my real goals are not an instant result but a result of patience and hard work. I would love to release BOAS tomorrow, but an unfinished manuscript would not please my readers, nor would one filled with grammatical errors as my rough writing is when unedited. No I (and my readers) have to wait until the writing is finished, the editors have critiqued and the edits performed.
Another aspect of patience is allowing people to get to a point where it is appropriate to do what you want to do. To me Christchurch is an example of this. I have just flown back down from Auckland today and had to get my hair cut in a Christchurch mall as there would not be any place open on Easter Monday in Timaru and I have a job interview tomorrow.
My favourite mall in Christchurch is Riccarton Mall, one I frequented a lot during my university years, though a quite smaller then. It is located in West Christchurch which was not so much affected as the East and the mall is pretty much fully operational. Having travelled into the bowels of Christchurch for the first time since the February Earthquake, it was very tempting to keep driving East after my hair cut and have a look at my old flat and other buildings. But I knew that even now the streets are still not fully operational and my presence would be another load on the straining roading infrastructure. My curiosity would have to wait for next time when I know what normality can occur has done so.
The East Christchurch people have a lot of stuff, emotional and physical, to go through before I feel I can impose on their hospitality no matter how tempting it is to see what buildings have been lost and what ones are possiblyly saved. But I was very pleased to see that Riccarton Mall was still standing, at least one of my old haunts has survived.
So today's message is Pacing and Patience is good for you, so give it a try, right this instant!