atience Irene, Patience

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

Lady Angela, the Baron’s fiancée, lived alone in Alpine Castle. While she lived alone she was never really alone because she had more visitors than anyone.

Irene was currently visiting Lady Angela in the spring. Irene’s parents were concerned that she was too high strung as a child. She seemed to have little patience with anything.

When Irene was a child, her parents gave her a quiet little dog for a pet. But it seemed that Irene got so frustrated in trying to train the puppy that she was not very nice to the young dog and her parents had to find a new owner for the dog. Irene told this story to Lady Angela because she wanted some advice since they were roommates when they attended the same university several years ago.

Next Irene remembered that when her favorite uncle was visiting her parents, she had been told that he was hard of hearing and relied on lip reading. But for lip reading to work the person talking has to stand in front of the person trying to lip read. Irene would often forget and get angry at her uncle for not answering her, but it was no fault of his.

Finally, Irene had been dating a young man named William. She was hoping that as the relationship became more serious he would propose marriage to her. If and when that happened, she told Lady Angela she would accept his offer. But Irene was getting anxious about whether that day would ever come.

The day finally came but Irene was distracted and did not observe that William was trying to get the small jewelry box out of his pocket and kneel on one knee at the same time. It was an awkward moment that should have been a joyous occasion.

As William slipped to the side a bit, Irene quickly commented that he was a clumsy oaf. William slid the jewelry box back into his pocket and stood up very tall. William said that he must have looked terribly clumsy at that moment. Then he added that he had made a big mistake and walked away and out of Irene’s life forever.

Irene was saddened by this and all the other things when she became too anxious. Lady Angela was asked for her advice. Lady Angela said that she should probably consider a life of living alone. “It is really not too bad. Make lots of friends and learn to live with your anxiety problem.”