Waiting: Being Where You Are

This perspective on waiting is from Anne, my best friend since first grade.  Thanks for sharing your story - it is so relevant!

When I work late, I usually call my husband, Eric, from the office.  If it’s after 7 pm, he’ll pick me up instead of me taking the bus home.  I never know how much time I need to finish up, so I just call him when I’m done and then I have to wait twenty minutes for him to arrive.  Or, I’ll call before I’m ready, hoping to save time.  That leaves Eric waiting in the car until I’m done.

Sometimes I walk to meet him along the road, thinking I’ll save time that way.  Eric calls me “Moving Target Annie” – I cause him more trouble because I’m much harder to find that way.  But I want to get home that much faster.  ‘Oh, I can take a fast bus and have Eric pick me up closer to home!’ I think.  Then the bridge goes up, Eric gets caught in that traffic, and we’re still waiting.  Complicated is the word for this. 

When I was younger, maybe eleven years old, I went to a University of Washington day camp.  Typically, I’d walk to my mom’s office on campus when camp was over.  There was one day, however, that I needed to stay a little later and we’d planned to meet at a particular spot at 5 pm.  I waited there for 15 - 20 minutes with no sign of my mom.  This was before everyone had cell phones, so I went to call her on a pay phone.  That meant walking away from the meeting spot and missing my mom when she came.  An hour passed.  I walked to the pay phone to call again.  No answer.

Finally, a cop car rolled up to me.  “Do you know an Anne Morris?” the officer asked.

“I am Anne Morris,” I replied, absolutely shocked that the police officer knew my name.

The cop drove me to my mom’s office.  My mom had gone to the meeting spot two times looking for me.  She was so upset when I walked into her office.  If I would have stayed in one place, none of this trouble would have happened.

Throughout my life, I’ve had trouble staying in the moment.  I’m learning to distract myself from always thinking of the next thing.  It boils down to a lack of control.  I want to contribute to the situation so it’s efficient.   If I just let go of that and give myself more time, I focus on enjoying that time by doing something I normally wouldn’t do, like reading a book.  That helps me through it.  I’m learning patience.  I enjoy these moments because it’s still time – time that I’m alive and can be in that place.  Maybe I’ll see something I wouldn’t have seen otherwise, if I had been go, go, go.

Winter Print by Anne & Eric