Pancakes & Patience

This weekend I learned a couple of things.
1. Pancakes are delicious when you have patience and let them cook.
2. Pancakes are slightly less delicious when you have no patience and do not let them cook.

Rainy Saturday mornings are basically made for pancake making while jamming out to the appropriate pancake themed music of Jack Johnson’s “Banana Pancakes”. (Fun game: let’s see how many times Madelynne will use the word “pancake” in this blog post) For once, I had the honor of being the Official Pancake Flipper, a title usually not given to me due to a past of extremely overcooked, hard as rock pancakes (life tip: turning up the stove all the way for the pancakes to cook faster usually does not work…). Fortunately, my college friends haven’t had too much experience with my unlucky burning catastrophes and I was finally entrusted to flip the pancakes. It was soon pointed out to me, however, that I possess absolutely zero patience. I’ve always known that I’m an impatient person, but waiting for these delicious breakfast treats to cook in front of me, really made me realize just how little patience I posses.

While standing there waiting for the pancakes to cook at a normal temperature and not being allowed to turn up the heat for a faster cooking time, I did a little bit of thinking. And I’ve realized that, unfortunately, I’ve been treating people (and life in general) a lot like I have my past pancakes. More specifically: my past burnt pancakes.

I have a bad habit of constantly making up schedules in my mind. This is fine, of course, except for the fact that I automatically assume that everyone else around me is in tune with this mental calendar. I get upset when people don’t follow along or don’t act the way that I want them to by a certain date. For example, if I get into an argument with someone on Monday, then I’ll assume that they’re definitely going to be fine and back to happy on Friday. But then Friday comes along and they’re still brooding over the disagreement and I’m left extremely confused.

But, you can’t rush people.

People need time. They need time to be sad, or hurt, or angry, or upset. These are all emotions that you can’t rush. You can’t just flip a switch on a specific date and have them magically go away. Life doesn’t work like that.

And you need to give yourself time. It’s okay to be sad. It’s okay to be angry. It’s okay to not be okay. You can’t expect these feelings to just go away overnight. You can’t set a date on the calendar for them to move out by. Sometimes they like to overstay their welcome. But just give it time. They’ll go away eventually.

The saying, “time heals all wounds” is completely true. Just be patient and give yourself whatever amount of time you need. Trying to speed up the process usually just ends up backfiring and leaving you with a situation similar to the disappointment of burnt pancakes.

Take your time. Don’t burn the pancakes.

~Madelynne Catherine

(P.S. I only said “pancakes” sixteen times.)

(P.P.S. I thought I should point out that I didn’t burn the pancakes that I made this weekend.)

(P.P.S. The “pancake” count is now up to eighteen.)