Waiting is one of the most common and daily experiences of ordinary human living. If we awake before the alarm, we wait for it; if a spouse is in teh shower, we wait. We wait for the coffee to drip, the bread to toast, the egg to boil. We wait for the bus or train to pull in, the meeting to begin or to end. By being attentive to our attitudes, such ordinary events can, quite literally, teach us something about waiting.

 

Waiting can be a time to anticipate joys to come. How happy we are awaiting the arrival of a beloved friend. How eagerly we anticipate the first notes of a favorite concerto. What tender delight touches our hearts when we hear a child's first and long awaited word.

 

Yet waiting can also be an experience of frustration and disquiet. How anxious we feel awaiting the report of medical tests. How nervous we feel awaiting the results of an arbitration meeting.

 

William Lynch, a Jesuit psychologist and theologian, writes of waiting as "one of the great human acts" which often includes "acceptance of darkness," of obscurity and failure, of "fortitude and endurance beyond the merely rational." In such instances, our very existential, moral and spiritual potential, indeed our very selves, are at stake in the waiting time...

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