Faith and Values: Raising a puppy is reminder that effective actions require patience and persistence
I’m losing my patience, and I know I’m not the only one.
The constant barrage of headlines isn’t just overwhelming – it’s making me angry. Each notification feels like another weight added to an already heavy load. And patience, a virtue I deeply value, is wearing thin.
Thousands of federal jobs have been slashed, language is being scrubbed from government websites and decades of environmental protections are being dismantled. These systematic attacks spark my outrage.
This anger isn’t wrong. It’s a natural response to injustice and is a sign that I care deeply about what’s happening around me. But lately, I’ve been wondering: How do I hold onto this righteous anger without letting it consume me?
Thich Nhat Hanh once said that anger cannot remove anger. Instead, it only promotes more anger. The challenge isn’t to suppress these feelings, but to hold them with awareness and compassion. When we react from raw anger, we often create more of what we’re fighting against.
A crucial anecdote is patience, and my teacher appeared in an unexpected form.
Murray, named after the Rev. Pauli Murray, is our 7-month-old rescue and she’s teaching me the art of taking deep breaths.
When she stares at me blankly as I attempt to lure her into a “down” position, or when she’s too captivated by the neighbors to do her business in 20-degree weather, I’m learning that my anger isn’t helpful. These small moments are daily opportunities to practice what Thich Nhat Hanh preached – meeting my frustration and anger with gentle persistence and understanding.
In these training sessions with Murray, I’m discovering a template for handling my political anger. That doesn’t mean accepting Murray’s occasional destructive chewing (baseboard trim, really, Murray?); it does mean responding with clarity rather than reaction.
This dog is teaching me that effective action – whether it’s learning “down” or protecting our democracy – requires persistence. Getting angry at Murray doesn’t make her understand commands any faster. Similarly, letting my outrage consume me won’t repair governmental systems overnight.
What’s needed in both cases is steady, determined effort combined with compassionate understanding that transformation takes time –precious time our planet and democracy are running out of. Democracy won’t strengthen itself while we take deep breaths. Yet rushing forward with reactive anger will only deplete the energy we need for this long fight ahead.
The headlines will keep coming. The outrages will continue to pile up. But like my morning routine with Murray – coaxing her past distractions, practicing commands again and again – I’m reminded that progress comes in small victories. Each time I choose patience over frustration with her, I’m building a muscle I need for the bigger challenges facing our world.
So when I feel that familiar tightness in my chest scrolling through the news, I think of Murray’s puppy-dog eyes during our training sessions. I take a breath, just as I do with her, and remind myself that this too is practice – the vital work of holding both urgency and patience, of staying engaged without burning out. It’s not easy, but then again, neither is raising a puppy.
Tracy Simmons, a longtime religion reporter, is a Washington State University scholarly assistant professor and the editor of FāVS News, a website dedicated to covering faith, ethics and values in the Spokane region.