Waiting

9 years old, Christmas Eve afternoon about 4:00. I walk around and around on the rockery that circles the Italian prune tree in the front yard. My sole purpose is to make time go by faster so I can get to open Christmas gifts. The fulfillment of dreams come true.

The power goes out, the house is cold, the food in the freezer is thawing and only cold water. We wait it's day 4 and powerless to change any of it.

Sitting in the back of the classroom next to the radiator by the window, on a May afternoon this Junior Higher is tired of waiting. There are forts to build, fish to catch, adventures to take. He looks at the clock again and groans.

Soo very sick, sitting in a chair too sick to think clearly. The far recesses of my mind remind me, 13 more days until the operation and healing can begin. Until then, I sit between layers of time waiting.

Will I get to see her? Will this be the day? Love fulfilled her declaring she likes me too?

In the dentist chair, body rigid as the drilling and scraping goes on and on, on my teeth.
The reverberating drill sound and the annoyance of gag. It makes time drag forever.

Waiting for test results from the MRI. Thoughts prophesying what life will be like if the prognosis is bad. Half my heart preparing for sorrow, Half my heart hanging onto hope. I wait valuing the moments that I still don't know.

He who orchestrates time knows all too well, us who are subject to it.
He knows the waiting is also the fulfillment as much as the fulfillment.
Look how much is being done while we are waiting to see him face to face.