Waiting

Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.      Joyce Meyer

Waiting is a form of passive persistence.

Ogwo David Eminike

You don’t get everything all at once.   You wait.

Elizabeth Berg

We hate to wait, don’t we?  I don’t know anyone who has ever said they like waiting or they were good at it.  Our society wants everything now and everything fast.  The media feeds on our need for speed and convenience.  Everything from our electronic devices to the meals we eat is geared to give us instant gratification.   We even try and keep our children from ever having to wait for something.  We buy them everything they want, we drop what we are doing to pay attention to them, we park them in front of electronic devices in restaurants and in cars to make waiting easier.  We are busy, busy, busy, no time to waste waiting.  That’s why drive-through is so popular, it’s fast and we don’t have to wait in line.  It is so hard for us to wait!

And now, here we are with literally nothing to do but wait.   For some of us it’s been a relatively easy wait as we find ourselves with more time to do the things we never have time for and be with those we love.  Many people find the waiting difficult as they struggle to keep their businesses afloat, or pay their rent or put food on the table.  Some of us have had more than enough family time and we are anxious to get the kids back in school.  Kids are tired of waiting for school to restart so they can see their friends.  And even for us content to be at home, the novelty has worn off and we are tired of waiting for this pandemic to end so we can leave the house.   We want to go out to eat, we need haircuts and mani/pedi’s, and we want to visit our friends and family. 

 

The media has started talking about reopening the economy even while there are still people getting sick and dying. The government is warning us to still stay home and on the other hand talking about a plan to get us back to our normal lives.   Everyone is getting restless.  Some to the point of protesting because they feel their civil rights are being violated as we stay home to keep people from dying.   There is so much confusion out there about the best way to go about reopening and people don’t know what is the right thing to do.

People.  Please listen to the health officials and do what they say.  They know what they are talking about.   They know through experience and study that it is too soon to start sending people back out in the world.   The danger is real for a second wave that will be worse than the first one.  It will be more virulent and end up costing the economy way more than if they just take their time and be sure this virus is gone for good.   They are saying we will still have to take precautions.  They talk about wearing masks and gloves when we leave the house and continuing with social distancing for the foreseeable future.  That means waiting in line to go into stores.  I can’t see people putting up with that much longer.

So use this time to learn how to wait.  Take a deep breath and focus on the positive aspects of this quarantine.  And if you can’t find anything positive, then remind yourself that this will pass, we will get through it, if only because time marches on and we go along with it.  Wait.   It’s hard, but you can do it.   Don’t rush this  pandemic or there will be consequences.

Just wait.