Waiting Is Not Easy

Waiting is not easy!  Mo Willems, a prolific children’s author, reminds us that waiting is really, really hard to do.  I bought this book about 5 weeks into the pandemic for my kids, and myself, as a reminder that the pandemic would eventually pass.  Yet here we are, still waiting for the pandemic to pass, for election results and the legal fight to follow, for racism to implode, for a chance to see the people who we miss outside of a screen.  We are waiting, and it is not easy.

Dr. Seuss warned us in Oh, The Places You’ll Go! that we would come to a waiting place.  

“You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.  The waiting place.” 

And here we are.  

“Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No, or waiting for their hair to grow.  Everyone is just waiting.  Waiting for the fish to bite, or waiting for wind to fly a kite, or waiting around for Friday night, or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake, or a pot to boil, or a Better Break, or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants, or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.  Everyone is just waiting.” - Dr. Seuss

What do we do with the waiting?  Well, recently, there is an idea bouncing around our congregation where folks might record themselves reading children’s books for a Friday Night Bedtime Story series starring our beloved community members, for our multi-generational community audience!  What ideas have come along in your mind that might ease the waiting?  What sort of support might you need to make it happen?  How can our community partner with you?  

Waiting is not easy.  It is uncomfortable in a world where so many things are available on demand.  I remember learning to bake cookies with my grandmother who would always remind us as the oven door closed that “Good things come to those who wait.”  We are baking up hope and connection as we wait, waiting on a world that encompasses a wide love for everyone in the waiting place.  May we have patience and resilience to bring us through to realizing that which we are waiting for to manifest in ways that bring forth love into our world and day to day lives.  May it absolutely be so. 

With love,

Erin