Patience - What does it mean to you?

In the last few days, I've had people thank me, or the group I was in, for my (or our) patience, and I've had to stop and wonder "For what?"

Where do you draw the line between "I'm being patient" or "I'm working on/trying to be patient" and just realizing this is the process and it takes what it takes, or sometimes more significantly "I'm a grownup, not a 4 year old child."?

Today, a specific example came up, and because of the setting, I found it particularly weird that thanking the people present for our "patience" was even brought up.

So I went to a yoga class this morning, on that starts at 10:30, so most people start to go into the room about 10:20 to 10:25, since usually another class ends 15 minutes before the next one, in this case 10:15.

Anyway, today this class was being held in the smaller of 2 rooms, as the larger one was being used for teacher training. Usually it's held in the larger room. There were maybe 5 people in there when I strolled in, and maybe another 15 came in after me. The teacher showed up, and as she walked to her platform, asked if we could move a few inches closer to each other side to side (to fit 5 people across rather than 4) and that the front row move up so we could maybe get another row in.
I've been in smaller rooms with more people, believe me, it would have left way adequate space for all. I shoved over, as did the guy on my left, getting a little closer to the wall. I noticied the woman to my right just stayed planted, and various people around the room did too, looking around almost bewildered, like they couldn't understand the concept of "let's all pull together in this, no big deal" While this was going on, the teacher had walked out and quickly traded rooms with the teacher training room. She came back in and asked everyone to put back their props and move to the big room.

I thought it was kinda funny actually, because we all had to walk about 20 feet, and use the side door of the big room, while the people in there used the main door to flow to the smaller room. I said to the person in front of me "we're moving like cogs in a wheel." which made him chuckle. ANYway, we all get settled, and I know the time taken couldn't have been more than 2 and a half, maybe 3 minutes tops from beginning to end. I really wasn't paying attention, but apparently there were some looks/grumbling and the teacher actually said "I know how you feel. Last week I got an email from a student that talked about all these problems he was having, and at the end he thanked me for my patience. I thought, 'Why would he assume I was being patient?' So, I hope you all were able to have patience with this."

Being me, I popped up with "Why would you assume we weren't being patient?" She sat for a second and said "Spoken like a true yogi"

I had to inwardly roll my eyes, because are you kidding? Walking from one room to the next. Taking an extra 3 minutes out of your life to attend of all things a yoga class involves patience? I want enlightenment, and I want it NOW!

Sure, you could say she was being polite, but does being polite have to involve apologies that assume people are at their worst?

In everyday situations, patience for me involve waiting a few weeks for a medication to take effect, and dealing with the situation until it does. It working really consciously at not letting someone really different from you get on your nerves. It's letting go of the idea that we can control a situation, and living contently with "it is what it is", or at least until the time is right for the change.

A sequoia didn't grow up in a week.