I live... I learn

When will waiting for 'the one'... be done...

"When will waiting for 'the one'... be done?" -Carrie

Waiting is probably one of the hardest things we do in our lives. It seems to give us severe anxiety and sense of uneasiness whenever we do it. There's something in waiting that is so not us. It might probably be that most of us are impatient people who don’t have the word "wait" in our dictionary. It might also possibly be that we're so pessimistic that we feel that waiting means waiting in vain. There might be so many other reasons why people don't like the idea of waiting... and no answer can literally sum it all up. I guess, it's one of the greatest mysteries in human history--people are allergic to waiting today.

It's funny to think that people in our times can't afford to wait when in fact; people in the past seemed to spend their entire lives in waiting. In fact, when we had our Theology discussion about Dei Verbum, our Professor talked about how people in the OT waited in their entire lives--not just waited in patience, but rather, waited patiently and faithfully. Now, I know that these are people in the Bible and they seem to be more fictional than non-fictional characters (of course, this is still debatable) but, people outside the Bible also illustrated the act of waiting patiently and faithfully. People during the stone ages waited for animals and for weather, people in the midieval time were so patient waiting for the cure for their sickness, lands, etc. Early Filipinos also waited patiently and faithfully to gain independence and to be finally called as Filipinos. And based on these examples, we can see that people can actually wait patiently and faithfully before. However, with the changes that occured throughout time, waiting seemed to be lost in the things that people—us, do in our lives. We seem to alienate the idea of waiting in our lives.

The other day, I was able to talk to one of my best friends and “waiting” was our topic. He told me that the reason why he has a negative thought about waiting is because he doesn’t want to be frustrated in the future. It seems that having negative thoughts about waiting has become a defense mechanism for him so as not to be upset with whatever that he’s waiting for. He further told me that he has lost faith in waiting because it’s silly to think that God has something for each one of us because how would you account those people who died in poverty, severe depressions, and painful experiences—all of them waited in vain. With all these unfortunate things about waiting, he asked me: Do you still think that waiting patiently and faithfully is still a good option to do?

Having heard about what my best friend had to say, my notion about waiting still hasn’t diminished at all. I know that my best friend has his own set of reasons why he had that stance on waiting. However, I still believe that waiting shouldn't be alienated in our lives. Rather, I believe that waiting is a virtue that we should learn in our lives.

I know that waiting is really hard and I definitely concur to that idea. However, it doesn't mean that we should neglect it already. What we should do instead is to try changing our perspectives about it rather than treating it as a big "no-no" in our lives. I guess that the main reason why many people don't want to wait is because of the idea that we're not assured that we'll get the things we want if we wait. Thus, these people don't want to end up being frustrated. In this reason, we can see that the people who fall under this category has the idea that they would get something big in their lives... they'll get rich, they'll be able to meet their ideal spouses, they'll get their dream job, etc. However, this is not the real case.

We get "what we want" or what we need in due time and in due amount. It doesn't mean that you'll get the things right at the snap of your fingers. More so, it doesn't mean that we'll get the things as we exactly imagined them to be. All these things come in the right time and in the right form that would benefit us more. We just don't realize them when they come and I guess that it's our biggest problem in dealing with these things. And based on this, we can clearly see that waiting is not the only problem that most of us have. Learning to be contented with the things that are for us is also one of our biggest problems--including myself. (i don't want to talk about this more because i intend t put this to the next entry of mine).

So in asnwering the question I asked at the first part of this entry, "when will the waiting for the one be done?" I really don't know when but I'm definitely sure that it will come--we just need to know how to distinguish it and appreciate whatever/whoever "the one" is.

posted by wEn @ 4:02 PM