The often single-player card game which is known as Solitaire in the United States is known elsewhere throughout the world by the name of Patience. There are variations on the game, but the heart of the game is taking a deck of cards that has been shuffled so that the cards are in a random order and trying to put the cards into order following a set of rules. Sometimes it can be quite thrilling as finding the one right card leads to a whole cascading sequence of matches. And sometimes it is clear why most of the world calls the game Patience, as it is entirely possible to go through the deck multiple times without any matches. Indeed, it is not uncommon for the deck to be shuffled in a way that there is no winning solution, so that the cards must be all gathered up and reshuffled and the process starts over. Patience in life can be like this. Sometimes the thing we are looking for comes easily and it sparks a chain reaction of change and progress. Sometimes we can metaphorically flip over card after card and find nothing that matches. It can be painful admitting that perhaps at this time in our life, it is time to gather up all of the cards and reshuffle the deck. We may have to abandon a job or a relationship that isn’t working. We may have to move to a new town. We may get hit by some tragedy that wipes out our health or our savings or our reputation. Patience is recognizing that while some of our hopes and dreams and aspirations don’t necessarily work out exactly when we want them to - and on our darkest days it might seem like most of them don’t work out - we nevertheless keep playing the game and reshuffling the cards because we never know but the next round might be a winning hand.
