Waiting

Okay, so this one is a test.  Can I fall in love with waiting?  My hope is that by the end of this post, I might be able to embrace it.  That's a tough order.  Think about it . . . when have you ever thought about waiting in a positive way?  Waiting rooms, waiting in line, waiting for your ship to come in . . . these are not necessarily positive experiences, are they?  The best thing that ever happened to "waiting" was Barney's use of "Wait for it!" in How I Met Your Mother.  It's a step.

All of us here are waiting for spring, despite the forecast for snow tomorrow.  My son is waiting for graduation and his move to California for a new adventure.  My daughter in Australia is waiting for a return home and (hopefully) a new job.  My other daughter is waiting for a break from teaching and grading papers so that she can focus on her own writing.  I am waiting for my cat to decide to die.  Or for a miracle that will keep her alive.  Always waiting.

In the late 60s, I discovered the Beat Poets.  Lawrence Ferlinghetti was my favorite.  I still have my copy of A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), which cost me $1.00 when I bought it.  One of my favorite poems in it was "I Am Waiting" in which he goes on a bit of a rant about everything that was wrong in America, but declared at the end of every stanza, "I am awaiting a rebirth of wonder."  And isn't that really what we are all waiting for?

I think the point is that it is better to be waiting for something as opposed to having nothing to wait for.  So I will wait, as patiently as I can, for something to recharge my sense of wonder.  And I will fall in love with the idea that I have something to wait for.