Patience has always been the least of my redemptive features. I can still recall how it felt on Christmas Eve when I was just a kid living on Wy Ave in Buffalo, Wy. It was agony to wait for Christmas morning to open gifts. This lack of patience has followed me through my life.
Three years ago when I was sentenced to prison for civil disobedience, I had to wait two months before I finally walked through that steel door. Believe me, waiting those two months just added to the time I spent behind bars. Last year at this time I was waiting to go to Haiti to work at a clinic. I knew a month ahead I would be going, however it took time to organize the team, and so I waited.
These recent examples of wait happened in March. Here it is, March again and I am waiting again. This time, perhaps for the most joyous, anticipated reason of all for waiting.....the birth of my first grand-child! This wait resembles the other waits. There is some anxiety, some reflection, some longing that my reality was not in a holding pattern but in full motion. ON WITH IT! But this time the wait is not about me. It's about an angel about to be. A new spirit deciding when to enter this world. This child of God who will change our view of life forever.
It takes my breath away to think about it. Perhaps this March wait time will be the one to teach me about the gift of waiting, in fact, I think it already has....
Pax Tecum
