Waiting

So many ways to wait. With excitement or dread. With calm or hypervigilance. You might be waiting for a package delivery, the end of an ordeal, or the outcome of a high-stakes contest or medical test. Sometimes in these darker months, I wait with foreboding for the advent of something unspecified, as if the soundtrack of a suspense film were playing in my head.

Like preparation or getting ready, waiting anticipates a future event or change. Unlike preparation, waiting is a state of mind. It’s often most intense when there’s little you can do to prepare.

When waiting grows uncomfortable and refuses to be ignored, the best response depends on circumstance and personality. Here are three of my standbys:

1. Take one preparatory action, just enough to feel agency instead of victimhood. The trick is to keep it small enough not to slip into obsession.
2. Commit to something demanding and all-engrossing that has nothing to do with the object of waiting. I moved house during the 2016 election, leaving no time to fret.
3. Observe with curiosity. This is one of my favorites. It allows me to couple fascination with detachment, as though I were watching a movie or creating a documentary.

Image: Photograph by Suganth on Unsplash.