I’ve been doing a lot of waiting lately. Waiting for interviews, waiting to hear about jobs, waiting on people to send me paperwork so I could wait on other people to approve the paperwork, waiting for the right office to appear, waiting, waiting, waiting. Let me tell you, I am not a good waiter. Waiting makes me antsy. Waiting makes me feel like I don’t know what to do next. Waiting makes me feel like I want to skip over several weeks until “the good stuff” starts happening. It makes me feel . . . stuck.
I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this feeling. I talk to people all the time who are waiting for things they can’t control. Waiting on the call from a doctor with their test results, waiting on their partner to change, waiting on their kids to work through their stuff or get to the next developmental shift, waiting on themselves to work through their own stuff.
Waiting is hard. It is not for the faint hearted. It makes us question whether we’ve made the right decisions. It makes us anxious with the possibilities of what is to come. But it is also hopeful. It lets us dream. It lets us create fantasies of what could be. It also allows us to find closure. Often the reason we are waiting in life is because something has just ended. We’ve just finished the last book in the series, and we can’t wait for the next one to be released.
Writing that next book is hard though. It takes preparation and reflection. If we jump straight into the next without finishing the last we don’t allow ourselves to learn, to grow. So yes I’ve been waiting, as I’m sure many of you have been. As a therapist, I often find sitting with the waiting to be one of the most difficult aspects of a session. I often find myself wanting to help my clients find a solution. I have a feeling this may be related to my own discomfort with waiting. So, in this period of waiting, I challenge you, and myself, to sink into the waiting. Let’s allow ourselves to truly learn from our last book, to let it’s teachings seep into us. That waiting is hard and uncomfortable. But that’s life. Sometimes the good things are worth waiting for.