Lesson to Self #14: Wait Well

As I type these thoughts, I am waiting for something to happen at EMS Station 14. It is quiet, both my partners intermittently scrolling their phones or catching a quick cat nap going into their 24-hour shifts. The donuts kindly donated by some unknown party sit ignored on the large dining table. There is no hustle and bustle. Rater, we quietly await.

Waiting can be excruciating. A friend posted just this morning the difficulty of waiting for critical medical test results. An online acquaintance wrote of Biblical examples of profitable waiting, citing Joseph and King David as exemplars. My own thinking turned to Jairus’ daughter, spoken of in the synoptic Gospels, who had taken ill and died before Jesus arrived. Parental hope must have plummeted to an all-time low when they thought—erroneously—that their waiting for the Healer to arrive would yield only sorrow. Rather, their wait turned joyous when the girl was given back life.

Waiting is hard, mostly because we (read that, I) tend to add too much activity and worry into this period that is intended for rest, faith, and regaining perspective. I want to do, move forward, make progress. It is against my nature to stand still.

At one point in my life, I enjoyed hunting. Before climbing into a tree, I used to joke with my husband, an avid, anything-but-fair weather sportsman, that I was going waiting—not hunting. After all, I was not going to actively stalk, aka hunt, a deer. No. I was simply waiting for one to come close enough to my tree stand so I could whack it and take it home for dinner. My waiting while nestled among the branches proved to be a delightful time of reflection and rest, whether or not it yielded venison for our table.

Are there lessons to be learned in the wait? What should—and should not—happen in the time period between initial activity and continued action?

When we wait well, a solid foundation of patience and contentment develops, especially helpful when the end point is not easily identified. We come to understand that there is little we can do to speed the wait along. Thus, we take a deep breath and settle in, trying to wrangle our obsessive ponderings of “what if” scenarios, which do nothing to alter the outcome.

But do we twiddle our thumbs while we wait or be productive in some way? As a personal example, I am in a waiting period following a serious orthopedic injury. I don’t know when—or even if—I will heal completely. And yet, I am learning to embrace the wait by simply doing what I can do rather than mourning what I cannot. No more, no less makes for a better wait.

What about you? Have you honed your waiting game?

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Lessons to Self #1-13 are available in prior posts.