Waiting

One of my granddaughters' favorite books to read is Dr. Seuss' Oh the Places You'll Go! One of the parts of it has been rattling around in my head these last two months that we've been stuck here, and I thought you might enjoy it:

"You can get so confused

that you"ll start in to race

down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace

and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,

headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

                                            The Waiting Place

...for people just waiting.

    Waiting for a train to go

    or a bus to come or the rain to go

    or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow

    or waiting around for a Yes or No

    or waiting for their hair to grow.

    Everyone is just waiting.

            Waiting for the fish to bite

            or waiting for wind to fly a kite

            or waiting around for Friday night

            or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake

            or a pot to boil, or a Better Break

            or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants

            or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.

                                Everyone is just waiting."

I confess - the last two months have been pretty frustrating with all the waiting to get on with our travels, but when I think how close I came to losing Tim, it's made me realize all the more that I need to live each moment as if it was the last, because it may very well be. Clancy's Marina in Oriental NC will not be The Waiting Place, but the place to squeeze out every bit of life, not waiting around for the time when we can leave to head north, but instead stopping on the dock on the way back from the head to admire the utter stunning beauty of the great blue heron as it lifts off to rest on the piling, scolding me for disrupting its breakfast. The place to meet new friends, to play music with our grandson, to enjoy an iced coffee, to savor the simple joy of having Tim brush my hair because I can't do it myself.

Dr. Seuss goes on to say, "NO! That's not for you! Somehow you'll escape all that waiting and staying." But life isn't a Dr. Seuss book and none of us is promised tomorrow. So if you find yourself in a Waiting Place, it may just be that you can find a way to make it a Living Place instead, a little bit like our Oriental stay.