Waiting

 Now is the season of waiting. For Christians it's Advent, the time of waiting for the birth of Christ. For Jews Chanukah is a period of waiting to see if the Temple has survived. For others the time of the Winter Solstice is a time of waiting for the sun to return, a time for the Earth to rest and repair in preparation for Spring and the growing season. But human beings are not a particularly patient race; we hate to wait for anything. This train of thought was inspired by an essay by writer, editor, and publisher Jeff Dunn called "A Lifetime of Advent", published today on the Internet Monk blog. This is how he starts off the essay:

I have a confession to make. I hate to wait. Really. Red lights on the road are a curse of the devil. A line at checkout when I’m buying groceries? I have to ask myself how much I really need the things in my cart. I’m all for patience, as long as I can have it NOW. 

So we enter into Advent, the season of waiting and I hate waiting. We wait for God to appear in a manger in Bethlehem at just the right time. But I want to rush through these days and get to Christmas already. Did I say that I hate to wait?

Jeff isn't alone; this seems to be a common trait of humanity. The traffic light goes from red to green and we lean on the horn if the first car in line doesn't immediately leap forward. We fidget while waiting in line. We pace the floor while waiting for the repairman. We snap and growl at the slow pace of time. Waiting brings out the worst in us.

And yet we consider patience a virtue and view our native impatience as a character flaw. And in this time of year when patience is the theme of life, we create holidays to celebrate waiting. We acknowledge the time needed to rest, we sing hymns and carols and paeans to The Coming Days. We humans are, if anything, a study in contradiction.

I'm not a particularly patient person myself, but I love this time of waiting. I love this time of the sleeping Earth and the contrast between the bare, resting deciduous trees and the still green evergreens. I love walking through the woods and hearing the crunch of the dead leaves underfoot. And I love the snow. My favorite quote about snow comes from Lewis Carroll and applies exactly to this season of rest we call Winter: “I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, 'Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.'”

And there's the source of my own impatience - I impatiently await the first good snow of the season, when Mama Gaia will tuck the sleeping Earth snugly in her special white quilt. We haven't had a good snow yet, and I pace and fret at the lack. I wait for the special quality that the blanket of snow adds to the landscape, and the comfort it gives me to see it laying there.

Still, there's a particular austere beauty to the Winter landscape without snow that can make the waiting easier. I went seeking it on a walk this morning, the day before the Winter Solstice, and I found it and brought it back to share with you. Enjoy!

© 2017 by A. Roy Hilbinger