It seems all of our lives are spent waiting for one thing or another. Waiting for the alarm clock to go off starts the day. Waiting for the shower to get warm, for the curling iron to get hot, the pop tart to pop up, the coffee to be ready, the car to warm up, all the traffic to move, the red lights to turn green, and all before nine in the morning.
When we go to work, we might wait for people to walk through the front door, or have a job waiting for the phone to ring. We get our lunch break, and wait for our lunch, back to work and can’t wait until our break, and then, wait to go home.
We wait for the TV dinner to be warmed in the microwave, wait for the news to come on, wait until we get ready for bed, plop in, and wait for sleep to come. That is truly a lot of waiting.
We wait for papers to be graded in school, and report cards, and holidays, and snow, and Christmas and birthdays. We wait to be asked out, then wait to actually go out. We wait for graduation, we wait for a job, we wait to find someone we love and who loves us, we wait to get married, wait to buy a house, and wait to have kids. We wait for the kids to grow up, we wait for our peace, we get it, and we wait for them to come back.
I have a ninety three year old aunt who is simply and courageously, and with dignity, waiting to die. She is tired, she doesn’t go out, she watches TV all day, and has for a while, and I try to remember to call her at least once a month or every two months. She sounds like an angel on the phone. She was always my favorite great aunt.
She has always been so nice, and her sister was the opposite, except she was always very kind and good to me. My aunt is completely clear headed, she understands what I talk about, my kids mainly, and what’s happening in my life, and I keep telling myself I’m going to take a ride to see her, but I never do. Maybe I will make that a priority.
The sweetest woman in the family, I believe, and the most honest, and the most simple. She loved her husband, her daughter, her home, and lost her husband some years ago, but not without years with him. Then two years ago, her sister died, and she says that’s when she started getting tired, understandable. I’m glad I call her, and you never know, she might wait for my calls.
We wait to have all the kids out of the house and have fun and peace in our fifties and up, and I’m not sure if that’s going to happen or not yet.
We wait for fast food, we wait for divorce, we wait for employment, we wait for paychecks, we wait for sex, we wait for TV shows, we wait to go see a movie.
We wait nine months to give birth.
We wait for the waitress, we wait for the valet, we wait to get checked out at the food store, we wait to get tires put on our car, we wait in line to return something, we are waiting constantly.
We wait at the doctor’s office, or the dentist, or for the bus or the train.
Some of us gain more knowledge in the area of learning how to wait patiently, no matter where they are. Some always have a book available, especially in motor vehicle or social security. Some read the magazines, some just sit quietly, some close their eyes and rest, and some close their eyes and meditate.
I simply stew as quietly as possible in my seat or in other circumstances where I have to wait, or try to do something about the situation to change it, or accept and surrender. I’ve waited as long as four hours to see a doctor before.
Waiting is the pits, but since we do so much of it, we would help ourselves to learn what to do to train our minds to be calm and accepting. Otherwise, our lives will be riddled with complications and aggravation and anger and bitterness. We have to learn how to wait, it’s really that simple. Patience, that’s all. We need to accept and be patient. Very hard to do, but doable, even if it’s a little at a time.
For me, anything I can do to make my life more pleasant until I die, is worth working at. My prayer is, "If I’m going to have to wait, please let me wait patiently." I could make brownies right now, but besides being too tired, or lazy really, at 3:48 a.m., I’d have to wait for them. Pizza, wait. Restaurant, wait, vacation, wait, promotion, wait, hit song, wait, best seller book, wait.
Do you get the picture? If all these things are things we have to wait on, it would be for our better good to learn how to handle all those hours and hours of waiting over our lifetime. When I broke my toe a few months ago, I was so upset because I had to wait four hours from the time they left me sitting on a stretcher like couch, and the time they came to take the x ray. I did go out and ask the nurse if somebody was going to come once, but I was very calm and respectful as I could be, which wasn’t completely. Patience is a virtue because it’s so damn hard to accept and practice, but it can be done. And the more obstacles that get in our way, the more practice we get.
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