Stillness 5-26: We often find ourselves waiting for the next thing. Maybe it’s an appointment, or a breakthrough, or feeling well again after illness, or a trip we’ve planned. Whether we’re waiting for the next bus to come along or a flood of enlightenment, the waiting time tends to be dull. Most humans don’t like it. When was the last time you said to someone, “I’m really looking forward to waiting for such-and-such!”
The word “wait” originates from the Old Dutch wacht which meant “a watching.” Old High German also has a word wahhon “to watch, be awake.” And Old English wacian meant “to be awake.” All these words originate from another word weg, which means to be strong, be lively. Being lively means feeling alive.
With the Medieval French influence on the English language, the word became more sinister: to wait meant to watch out for, to defend, to be on one’s guard, to lie in wait for. Our current meaning of the word, which is “to stay in place until something occurs,” doesn’t show up till the 14th century. So our concept of waiting passively is very different than the word’s original sense of watching, of being wide awake, of being alive to what might happen.
This made me think how things don’t really happen outside of us. Even a bus coming along won’t actually change our situation unless we’re active participants in the journey. We have to get on the bus, for one thing. We have to have a mindset of expectation and purpose.
In the iconic play Waiting for Godot, two friends, Vladmimir and Estragon, seek various ways to find hope and purpose in what feels like an absurd, meaningless world. They pin their hopes on their expectation that a god-like being will show up. They wait. And wait. Godot never does show up, but, while they wait, insights do happen and their friendship deepens.
Next time you have to wait for something, look around and see what’s really going on. Waiting is just as much a part of your life’s journey as actively pushing forward. When you’re climbing a mountain, it’s essential also to enjoy the view, marvel at the wildflowers, sit on a rock, rest. It’s essential to watch what happens instead of just waiting for it.