The Art of Waiting

A dog waits in front of the house as her eyes look afar beyond the people passing by in front of the house. A fly or a stray cat or even a boy with hotdog in his hands distracts her from her goal, but she returns to her former post.

Leaning on a chair in a café, a man glances at his iced tea as the ice cubes collided after floating and the number of iced cubes are decreased for the nth minute. His eyes are then locked across the glass wall of the place while people and cars go by. Tempted to look at his watch, he remains calm and decides to continue staring at the street.

Most people have been in such situations. You might have been wondering. Then an anxious thought comes, but you try to brush it away. You prepare your thoughts of what to do and what to say, thinking of what the next scenario could be. Sometimes you let your thoughts wander. You remember the things you need to do, the things you need to buy later, and the things you have faced earlier that day or yesterday. A couple walking in your direction might have passed by. Chatter by a group of people might have reached your ears; and a bunch of kids might have skipped down the pathway as they played tag. Maybe you have played a song or two from the playlist you have created in your phone as your earphones let you space out and flee from every hint of reality, stopping time.

It quite could be a roller coaster inside you as this process allows you to feel various types of emotions. Your eyes reflect whether there is enthusiasm or tiredness already. The anticipation doesn’t die out as you look at your surroundings. You feel prepared for being there already and you have plenty of time to think about many things. Maybe someone has been running a playlist and the song from the queue has repeated already. People might have come the same time you arrived, but they have been leaving one by one. Whether you are in a coffee shop or bus stop, or the bench of a store, the aura of the place is slowly becoming immune to you. You might have even analyzed it if it was really noticeable. Your sighs might have been deeper and deeper for every passing minute. Games in your phone might have been retried to beat the high score, but you might have been worn out with it at the moment.

Sometimes doing something else could divert your attention, but whenever the duration of the time you have been sitting there increases that is the time where it becomes a bit complicated. You might think that maybe the person you are waiting for got lost along the way or maybe got stuck in the traffic. You began thinking—what could have happened? Is there an accident? Did he someone along the way and they got into a bit of a conversation of catching up? Maybe he passed by somewhere else to pick a few things on the way.

For the first minutes, maybe there are calm things that you can resolve into. Probably they are reasons you can settle yourself with. Maybe sending the person with a message or two could be enough particularly if they reply. If that is not the case however, your questions could grow to--could he have forgotten? Is he really on the way? Is everything really alright? He couldn’t have encountered into an accident, could he? Or does he really want to meet with me? Or maybe now is not a good time for him. Your head spins with all sorts of reasons that could happen, and that he could mention when he arrives.

Such situations can develop different experiences, but they always come with at least one lesson. Somehow you also want to trust him with whatever he will say later, but there is a sugar cube of hesitation in you. You could learn that the next time you meet with this person, it is better to confirm first whether he is really on the way or simply saying so though in reality he is still in the shower. Maybe you might think of coming at a later time since you do not want to repeat today’s happening. Or maybe something just really came up and particularly this day is an exception to the usual time he arrives.

This situation can also be faced depending on various perspectives. How you look at things can make this situation to something you can get mad and be bitter about or an unforgettable experience in developing yourself in becoming stronger. It might not be the best scenario, but deriving values from the circumstances present can bring you to a step of maturity upward.

One thing this waiting process might teach you is to be more patient with things. You might not be in the mood to agree with this idea after waiting for so long, but doing this for yourself is one huge step. Maybe thinking of growing your patience can help you endure long lines in the subway, deal with people that are not willing to listen in an argument and simply fight for their case, or even handle being calm and collected in situations you completely have no control. If this patience of yours grows to some extent, you have done yourself a favor for the future dilemmas you might face.

No one wants to wait, and most of the time no is delighted in waiting. However, sometimes if you change the way you think about what is being waited upon, maybe the waiting process won’t seem so bad after all. Have you ever considered that what if the one you are waiting is the person you love? Will you still feel all this anger of having this seemingly wasted time? Does it still feel cumbersome? Yes, to both. But maybe calming down with the thought of meeting the one you love when it comes after so much waiting results to so much fulfilling happiness which no words could ever be enough to express that joy can wipe all the anxious feelings you had all along. Sometimes it’s all a different, but special case when it comes to the person you love.

Another lesson could be doing all things with love. It’s hard—anyone could agree with that. It’s painful—people are willing to nod a head for that. But if every thing of everything is done with love, how all the things are done could be seen in quite a different perspective, not just the waiting process. A glass of water handed with love is differently seen with a glass of water being handed over with anger inside. Giving advice to a troubled person with a rushed spirit diverges with speaking advice with love. Staring at someone for hours with disgrace and contempt is quite varied as someone looks at another with a loving soul.

A dog cannot hide her excitement as she wags her tail upon the arrival of her master to their house. A man stands up as the woman he has been waiting arrives and coffee is ordered as the iced tea is finished an hour ago. Nothing beats waiting as it is waited with love. The happiness that can contain someone is able to completely sweep away all the hard moments and painful feelings as it is changed to joy no one else can describe once it steps down as you see the one you have been waiting arrive.