In every step of the work we do, there will be times when progress is, at best, invisible. We may move forward and back over one marker of progress, we may even lose some ground. At that point there is nothing to do but sit on the mat and breathe. You may want to check to make sure that the progress you’ve made is secure and well-grounded. And eventually you may need to take more aggressive action. But often you need to let your work catch up. Sometimes you need to let the environment catch up. You always need to find that balance between waiting and ignoring; but really waiting has its place.

It’s frustrating. But the weather does try to remind us that nothing happens in a hurry. Right now we’re noticing that Spring doesn’t happen in a day. One warm weekend, everybody’s running around screaming, “Spring’s here, Spring’s here.” They pack away their winter clothes and then wonder why they’re nursing colds and freezing. (Um, perhaps because the mercury isn’t going to make it over the freezing mark today.) But it will come. And if we’ve been doing our homework on our Peace project, it will come along as well.

Turn your attention away. Clean a closet. Meditate. Read something delicious. And then and only then, get back to work. The frustration is simply a good sign to do something else for a while.