Waiting Well

I think waiting is one of the hardest things about being human.  This morning I was standing in the kitchen and I told my husband, "We’re always waiting for something aren’t we?"  Sometimes it's small like waiting for a package to be delivered or for Friday night to be here, and sometimes it's big like waiting for healing or for marriage.  Sometimes waiting brings joyful expectation and sometimes it looms with dread. 

Are you waiting for something too? 

As soon as we're no longer waiting for one thing, there's something else.  It's a companion that will always be with us. 

So if our friend "Waiting" isn't leaving us anytime soon, maybe we can learn how to steer her so she doesn't steer us. 

Waiting is a mindset rooted in the future.  Looking ahead at a page yet to be written.  It's not bad to be waiting, it's human.  But it can become a vulnerability to our life if it keeps us in the future, over-riding all of the "todays."

What if instead of our friend "Waiting" dragging us right past the present day, we let it be our guide to bring us deeper into today's gifts.  So when we catch ourself too deep into the "what ifs" and "why not yets", we can use it as our reminder to ask, "What am I NOT waiting for today?"  Today, I’m not waiting to live in this sweet apartment anymore, I’m not waiting to live near family, I’m not waiting for a nauseating symptom to leave my body....all of those waitings have arrived, and they’re worth remembering.  

So, what are you not waiting for today?  Let's let tomorrow’s waiting be a catalyst of gratitude for the present instead of a distraction into the future.