Thought for the Week: Waiting is hard…..

We’ve all witnessed young children as they anxiously await Christmas or their birthday or a parent to come home from wherever, or a child waiting for a parent to pick them up after school.  Each of us, in our own way, has waited to hear about a job application, a college we want to attend, or how our favorite sports team did late last night.

Waiting is not a strength  for me.  I’ve always wanted to “know” and to get to the finish line as soon as I can.  At this stage in my life, waiting for cancer surgery is stressful, distracting and worrisome.  Of course it is!  It would be worrisome at any stage of our lives.  There’s a piece of me that wants it over, and there’s another piece of me that hopes I will wake up and it will all be a bad dream.  On some level, we’ve all been at this point for some reason in our lives.

And yet, I look at the people we serve in Nicaragua who have waited all their lives for the security of daily food or a shelter over their heads, or the children in orphanages waiting to be adopted, or the people of Ukraine longing to experience the wonderful silence of peace and not bombs…and I realize that there could be much worse “waits” in life other than cancer surgery.

I am not naive.  The road ahead of me will be a challenge.  Yet, I know I have health care.  I have prayers from many people.  I have the support of a whole Congregation of Dominican Sisters of Hope.  I have love and compassion of close friends, family members and Mission of Hope contacts.

So, on some levels, I feel it’s a bit like being in a tomb between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  We have the blessing of knowing there is an Easter after Good Friday.  That makes it a bit easier on our faith, I think.  Yet, the human part of me prays and hopes I’ll experience healing without a lot of “waiting”.  June 8th can’t come soon enough….

I’d like to share the poem Waiting by Jan Richardson.  May it bring peace and hope to all of us.

Who wait
for the night
to end

bless them.

Who wait
for the night
to begin

bless them.

Who wait
in the hospital room
who wait
in the cell
who wait
in prayer

bless them.

Who wait
for news
who wait
for the phone call
who wait
for a word
who wait
for a job
a house
a child

bless them.

Who wait
for one who
will come home
who wait
for one who
will not come home

bless them.

Who wait with fear
who wait with joy
who wait with peace
who wait with rage
who wait for the end
who wait for the
beginning
who wait alone
who wait together

bless them.

Who wait
without knowing
what they wait for
or why

bless them.

Who wait
when they
should not wait
who wait
when they should be
in motion
who wait
when they need
to rise
who wait
when they need
to set out

bless them.

Who wait
for the end
of waiting
who wait
for the fullness
of time
who wait
emptied and
open and
ready
who wait
for you,

o bless.  (Jan Richardson)

And so, we live in HOPE as we wait.

Sr. Debbie Blow, OP