Impatience

I'm more patient than I used to be.  I play the online Elvenar computer game where you're gradually building a magical city and you can only advance slowly and have to keep maintaining the supply flow and rental incomes and keep the factories in production with each order taking three hours or more.  You can speed up the game by paying real money, but from my perspective that isn't just wasteful but cheating!

Some species of bamboo can grow really fast.  I read somewhere that there are Buddhist monks who sharpen their powers of patience to the point that they can see a bamboo shoot grow!

I had to exercise some patience in writing my Ph.D. thesis.  I ultimately wrote ten drafts, and what's more, I often had to cool my heels for quite a while until my supervisor got around to reading my latest draft.  There was one 18-month period where I spent close to 12 months in this waiting!  The worst thing about it was that the only thing I could do then was worry.  I did pass in the end, but I was lucky to manage that.  I guess most people who write a doctoral thesis end up thinking, "If only it had been a little better..."

There's a flower called impatiens.