Awhile back, I was passing time in a local bookstore scanning through random books. I remember picking up a woman’s memoir or self-help book of some sort, and I caught a quote from the back cover that has stuck with me ever since.
The days are long, but the years are short.
The words are simple but they sunk in heavy. It encapsulated how I felt for most of my twenties. The years are short. I still remember my first day at my first job out of college. I remember all the other jobs after that. Yet I find myself here in 2014, and I can’t tell you how I got here.
Oddly enough, when I’m catching up with old friends, I often find myself muttering the same words. If you were to ask me what’s new in my life, I’m not sure what to tell you. I’m kinda slow in the milestone department. No wife. No kids. No house. “Just work, that’s it.” The days seem long.
It’s a weird time in life because I feel like I’m caught in the middle of two worlds. I have friends who have long settled into the next chapter of their lives, married with a kid or two in tow. I also have friends who are still hanging onto the vestiges of their youth, playing the same cards until it’s out of their system. Me personally? I feel like I am at a crossroads — I’m ready to board, but my train has not yet arrived.
There is a temptation to follow the paths of those who have gone before me. I wonder what it would be like to be a husband, to wake up early some mornings and cook her favorite breakfast or write her little notes, or how I’d have to think up something clever to make up for doing something stupid (which would probably be every other day). I also wonder what it would be like to be a father. My closest experience was found caring for my little cousin Justin for his first 13 years. Lord knows I would love to be a father.
But for whatever reason, it’s not now. So, in the meantime, I’m actively waiting.
Waiting…
And waiting.
There is something sublime that happens in this waiting period. For one, waiting puts you back in your place. You can’t always get everything you want, whenever you want. Waiting also benefits you in the end. It will intensify your joy and appreciation of that prized object when it does arrive.
I wrestled with this lesson in the past. Literally. I was rolling with my friends in Jiu Jitsu. It was my first time, and I was not on the mat very long, but by the end of the night I was spent. I had exerted so much energy trying to attack, predict and defend against the opponent’s moves, but my friends pinned me easily, breaking little sweat. My friend Josh later pulled me aside. He said the ones who excel are not only sound technically, but also patient. Before they execute their moves, they would wait for opponents to make a mistake or tire themselves out. That’s what separates the good from the best. I thought that was rather poetic. Even in a physical, full-contact sport, there is a time and place for waiting.
The waiting room is a hard place to be in, no doubt. It is especially hard when most of your peers are jumping and sprinting to their next stages in career and family. But when you learn to embrace this stage, there will come a serenity that wrap around you and hold you together.
I don’t know when my train will arrive. But I stopped looking at my watch. When I take the time to look around me, beyond me, the world opens up. There is so much more beauty than I ever cared to notice.