BLOG HISTORY
PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE
June 1, 2015 Monday
Hello Beautiful,
I am sure you have heard it said, “Patience is a virtue.” My response to that is, “It’s one I don’t have.”
What does that even mean? Patience is a virtue. Am I not virtuous if I do not have patience? That is most likely not what it means.
Welcome to June, my beautiful people! This month I am going to talk about patience. How each of us can get more patience and why patience is so important, especially in these days.
I do not have the patience to let my nails dry ... Confessions
Photo of Karissa Hagemeister
Also, interspersed through the month, I would love to share your stories, if you have a life lesson/story that you would like to share. Send it my way anytime this month and I will post it: bringingbeautifulback@gmail.com.
First things first, I feel like each of us has patience. But I think patience is one of those things that comes in “layers.” I have more patience today than I did when I was a teenager. I have more patience with relationships than I do with waiting for food to cook.
So before you start thinking that you do not have any patience, take a better look and you will see that you most likely do have some form of patience, even if it is not much.
Be patient, beautiful, this month is just beginning.
Love,
Karissa "Beautiful" Hagemeister
LEVELS OF PATIENCE
June 4, 2015 Thursday
Hello Beautiful,
So I was thinking about patience the other day. In my opinion, I do not have patience. But I have been told by many close friends that I have a lot of patience.
When I thought further upon the topic, I realized that there are some things that I do have an immense amount of patience for or with because I have had to wait for years and years. When it comes to family relationships and friendships, even relationships with guys, I have learned to have patience. It has not been easy or fun.
Relationships are an important thing to have patience with because we are all different and we think different, act different and so on. I still can get super annoyed with people, even angry, but I remind myself to keep it in check and be patient with them because they are not me and are not going to respond the way I think they should.
This is the Endless from our clothing line, Kingdom Dezigns @ www.kingdomdezignsfashion.com
Like the styles of this dress, our patience should be endless ...
Photo of Karissa Hagemeister
Like I said, there are levels of patience. I have a good level of patience with relationships, but I am sure I could have more. However, there are things that I do not have much patience for at all. For one, when I am hungry, I do not want to wait.
I like having my nails manicured but I do not like waiting for them to dry. I cannot stand being stuck in rush hour traffic. Waiting in line to ride rides at Disney World is not my cup of tea.
So there are somethings that I could definitely use more patience in, at least more than others. But why is it so important to have patience? Maybe we will find out in the next post :)
None of us are perfect, beautiful. So do not worry if patience is a thing you need to work on. I do too.
Love,
Karissa "Beautiful" Hagemeister
WHY WAIT?
June 6, 2015 Saturday
Hello Beautiful,
I have good reason to believe that people from previous generations, especially wild frontier times, had a whole lot more patience than we do these days. They had to. Their way of living and style of life required it.
Now, we do not have to wait for anything and that has turned us into a very spoiled generation(s). That is not necessarily a good thing.
Patience is actually a gift. Having to wait for things is actually a good thing. Patience teaches us ENDURANCE. It teaches us to hang on and push through.
Lay back and relax. That is the beauty of patience. All you have to do is wait ....
Photo of Karissa Hagemeister
The ability to endure is critical in life, period. We may have things easier than past generations, we may get things a lot quicker but life is still the same. People die. Storms come. Life gets hard. The only way you can make it through is if you have learned to endure. If you have had to be patient. If you have had to allow things to run their course. Wait through it. Wait it out.
Things do get better with time.
That is why patience is critical. Even though patience is one of the most difficult and grueling things to learn, it is something that we all need to have.
This may be a hard challenge, but when your patience is tested, consider it a blessing that will make you a stronger person and it will cause your roots to run deeper when the storms of life start raging.
Be patient, beautiful. You will endure.
Love,
Karissa "Beautiful" Hagemeister
STICK IT OUT
June 8, 2015 Monday
Hello Beautiful,
If you happen to be a person that does not have much patience, chances are you will be tested numerous times in life with your patience.
When I say tested, it will be more of a trying, stretching and growing of your patience. The testing is what allows your patience to grow. So for example, say you are tested in one area and you were able to hold on for a short time but in the end you couldn’t handle it all the way. You would probably feel like you failed that testing of your patience, but in reality, you stretched your patience a little further than it had been. Each test brings you a little further a long the patience scale.
If the Endless can stick it out, you can too. Be stronger than the dress :)
Photo of Karissa Hagemeister
Testing of the patience can occur in many ways. Some tests are short, like dealing with Orlando rush hour traffic. And some tests can be long, spanning for years. Like waiting for a promise that you know will come, you just do not know when it will come.
When you feel your patience being tried, smile to yourself. Instead of thinking “I failed that test” or thinking that you will fail, start thinking that you lasted a little longer with that one.
If you make it fun, kind of like a competition with yourself, and you try to out last your last test, the testing of patience will not be such a burden. You can consider it a self-improvement.
When being tested for patience, beautiful, stick it out a little bit longer. Each day you are a new you with the chance to beat out the old you.
Love,
Karissa "Beautiful" Hagemeister
STORY TIME
June 10, 2015 Wednesday
Hello Beautiful,
I have asked for you guys to share life stories or lessons with me to share on my blog this month but I have not received any so I am going to share a story with you. I thought it would only be fitting to share a story on patience since that is the topic this month.
This is an example of when I should have pushed deeper for patience instead of letting the situation get the better of me.
Early this year, I went down to Orlando, FL to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon. The race was set to start at 5:30 AM. However, I had to be at work back in Jacksonville by noon. There was a sea of runners and they had to let us go in sections so that they pathways would not be crowded.
The sooner we learn to let go of toxic situations the better off we will be in the end.
Photo of Karissa Hagemeister
I had already started the morning freaking out, not sure if I was going to be released soon enough to get to work on time. I knew that I needed at least 2.5 hours to run the 13.1 miles.
They released my section at just the perfect time before I could start panicking. I ran with everything I had and finished just under the 2.5 hour mark. I raced to my car and was making great timing until I came upon Daytona. Little did I know, it was a Daytona racing weekend.
To make a long story short, I ended up waiting in a 3 mile radius of Daytona for close to 3 hours, making me 2 hours late for work. The entire time I sat there I would switch between crying and freaking to getting extremely angry. Three hours of extreme emotions.
Thankfully, I still have my job. But I learned a big lesson in patience that day. That stressing out early in the morning did nothing for me. The freaking out in my car only was damaging to my health and my mind.
There are things that are way out of our control. The sooner we can figure that out the better. The sooner we let go of the situation and sit back, the better it will be for our mental and physical well being.
Don’t stress, beautiful. It will all work out in the end.
Love,
Karissa "Beautiful" Hagemeister
WHEN PATIENCE COUNTS
June 12, 2015 Friday
Hello Beautiful,
Patience is full of lessons. The only way to learn to have more patience to go through the testing and learn the lessons associated with each test.
I will share another story of patience with you today. This lesson in patience happens to be an on-going story. I am still in the testing, having over three years of testing so far and being no where near the end.
Some of you know that I have my own clothing line, called Kingdom Dezigns. I started my line in March of 2012. It is one thing to start a business and have it incorporated. It is another thing entirely to get the business off the ground to where it is making a difference and making a profit.
When patience counts, stick with it ... to the end.
Photo of Karissa Hagemeister
I am an entrepreneur at heart. I do not enjoy working for others. I enjoy being able to do my own thing and make something useful out of my life. I am not happy if I am not doing that.
I went to school for business and learned tons. But one thing you really need to start a business is stable funds. I have been working for the past three years trying to build those funds and build my brand, build a voice that people will want to listen to.
I feel like I have gained a few steps here and there but I feel like I have lost more than I have gained. I have tried numerous things and failed over and over and over.
I have wanted to give up time and time again. I have taken small periods away from my business as I have tried to come up with a new plan.
But here I am, three years later and I am still chucking away at it. Yes, plans have changed. Goals and visions have transformed and grown. Disappointment has been at every corner. But I have stuck with it. I have been patient with the process. Allowing it to take me where it may.
I am still in the process. Still going through the motions. No where near where I want to be. I will stick with it though. This is where patience counts. Following your dreams, goals, hopes to the end. To see them in their greatness.
Where patience counts in your life, beautiful, stick with it. The fruit will be beneficial, I promise.
Love,
Karissa "Beautiful" Hagemeister
REACHING THE REWARD
June 16, 2015 Tuesday
Hello Beautiful,
Before I get into the story for today, I want you to know that I will be going on a trip for a week and will not be able to blog while I am away. I will tell you all about it when I get back, but it is all a surprise right now. To say the least, this will be the last blog for a while.
As we have been talking about patience and I have shared some of my stories with you this month, I am going to talk about the fun side of patience. We have come to the conclusion that patience is a difficult thing, not so fun and not so easy. But there is a fun side to patience.
THE REWARD
Sporting our "I am Beautiful" tee at the beach
Photo of Stevie Hahn
Once we have reached the end of the patience, if we have stuck with it through the entire testing period, there is always a reward. A sweet, sweet reward. The testing sucks. But the reward always outweighs the testing.
I think, a lot of times, we never quite make it to the reward. We get so caught up in the test of our patience, that we do not hold out. We miss out on the greatness waiting at the end of the test.
I know I have. I also know that the times that I have given up because I did not want to hold on or push through anymore, those times I have greatly regretted giving up. Many times giving up on being patient has even pushed me into more of a “mess” than I was in if I had just been patient.
If you think of patience in terms of a race, for all my runners out there :), it is something that you have to endure, push through. Once you cross the finish line and receive that medal, all the sweat, pain, aches and long months of enduring are totally worth it. There is not a feeling in the world, like crossing the finish line to a race that you have worked and struggled so hard for.
So beautiful, push through to that sweet reward. You’ve earned it.
Love,
Karissa "Beautiful" Hagemeister
TEAM PATIENCE
June 30, 2015 Tuesday
Hello Beautiful,
This is the end of our series on patience. I am sorry to all my beautiful readers for taking that long amount of time off. I went out of state for a while to surprise my dad for Father’s Day.
To end the series on patience, I will share the story of my surprise. It was such a sweet win for Team Patience.
My dad lives in Kansas and I live in Florida. It has been over 2.5 years since I have seen him. For the past few years, I have tried to make arrangements to see him during the holidays or for his birthday, which is Valentine’s Day. But I always seemed to be needed at work. The plans always fell through.
Me and my Daddy on an adventure
Photo of Karissa and Steven Hagemeister
This past Valentine’s Day I wanted to surprise him by showing up for his birthday. As you can imagine, Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest in chocolate holidays. So I stayed to help out my chocolate family.
Finally, as Father’s Day was approaching, time opened up in my busy schedule and money came at just the right time for me to get a plane ticket. I only told a few of my family members that live up there of my little surprise.
Everything worked out perfectly. He had no idea that I was coming. I know that it not only made it one of the best Father’s Days for him in a long time but it made the whole week that I got to stay there with him so extremely special.
All conditions could not have been more perfect for the surprise. Though I wish I could have seen him earlier, I am glad that I was patient and waited for the perfect timing to see him and surprise him. This way I was not anxious, I did not have to rush back for anything and all conditions were perfect.
I know that we are constantly facing one form of testing with patience or another but don’t lose heart, beautiful. Take this last piece of advice on patience, when you do not think you can hold on any longer, just hold on a little bit longer. That means you are almost at the end. Make another win for Team Patience.
Love,
Karissa "Beautiful" Hagemeister
