The Waiting Place…

“…headed, I fear for a most useless place. The waiting place… for people just waiting.

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.”  

Dr. Seuss; Oh, The Places You’ll Go

My experience as a stay-at-home parent has included the partial memorization of any book that has struck my child’s fancy. As a result in the many different situations I find myself in I have an inner dialogue running through my mind of children’s literature that is applicable to my circumstances. “For a moment there was quiet, for a moment there was peace…” and “I do not want them in the rain, I do not want them on a train”… and, well you get the idea.

The past month, incessantly turning over in my mind, the most useless waiting place “where everyone is just waiting.” We have been waiting to find THE boat. Summer approaches and questions arise; swim lessons? camping? graduation parties? summer camps? What if we have the boat? What if we’re on a shakedown cruise? As these questions swirl, this excerpt has repeatedly cycled through my thoughts. The waiting place. Ugh.

Dr. Seuss is adamantly against the waiting place, urging the reader to disentangle and move on to action. How that resounds within my own psyche! Let’s just do it! Rip off the bandaid! To hell with the spreadsheets! No more waiting!

And yet…

To balance that impulse the quiet persistent concept of waiting expectantly stands firmly in the way of throwing caution to the wind. A still, small voice reminds me that more is at work than I can see and this journey that we are on is about waiting expectantly and being ready to move when the way is made clear.

What does that mean for the present? It means we are ready – financially, emotionally, mentally – to find the boat but it also means that we’re not going to force it and make something work. It means that the kids are signed up for swim lessons, camping reservations are made at Leelanau State Park, and the garden is planted. We will live in the present. We will wait expectantly. We will leave the waiting place but not just yet.