Waiting

I'm playing the greatest "waiting game" now, called "beat the freezer." You wait to go to the grocery store until you've got almost nothing left. It's going to be close, but I'm really trying to wait this one out as long as I can. I've spent a lot of time waiting this week. Some of it is the general type of waiting: in line at the grocery store deli, waiting for the school bus to come. Some of it was the type of waiting you don't really like to do: waiting in the doctor's office, waiting for results, waiting for my bathroom cleaner to actually start taking the soap scum off the walls. I've even been watching and waiting, like the rest of the country, to see what is happening to our economic system, and I imagine I'll be waiting to see it trickle down my way.
It's kind of hard to wait in this day and age, since we can text each other (something I can do now--wow!), email, make that phone call and reach someone instantaneously. I can have a meal in minutes, thanks to the microwave. I can watch an episode of Law and Order apparently 24-7-365, so no need to wait for that show each week. I can also get a good bottle of red wine and enjoy it now, rather than letting it age. I can get to most any store in my area in about 10 minutes. I can even find out if I'm pregnant in a minute (I'm not--so no need to comment on that, okay?).

Last night, I found myself waiting for something I just dread: The bear was up, complaining of a headache. I gave him the appropriate medicine, which then upset his stomach, so I was up at 2 am waiting with a bucket to see what would happen next. I kept thinking, "well, if he barfs, then it's only a matter of time before the others fall. Then it's a matter of waiting to get everyone well again." Turns out, it was just the medicine, not the headache that upset his tum, and he eventually fell asleep, so I went back to bed to do something I love waiting for: falling asleep.

I suppose my purpose of writing this entry is because I believe it's all about how you handle the waiting. Do you sit and stew, worry, and plan for the worst? What do you do while you wait? Pray, plan, think, analyze, reorganize. Good lesson for grown-ups, really, to sit back and wait. Teaching my kids how to wait is an important lesson, too. They need to learn that they cannot always have a snack right now, they cannot go play right now, they need to sit and wait and that sometimes it just takes longer to find the outcome.

Well, I guess I'll go back to waiting, but I'll keep on living in the meantime.