The Wisdom of Waiting

I was talking to a friend the other day, and commented that the pines he planted a few years ago had really taken off.  They were planted 6 years ago and are some 12 feet high, mostly due to the rains in the past few years. He laughed and told me he planted them about 6 month before he and his wife were married, and being the wedding was at the house, she asked how tall they would be by the wedding...he stammered around, and said. "Oh, about as big as they are now."  She wanted to see tall trees...not what she wanted to hear.

I could not wait to be 16, and get my Driver's Permit. I could not wait to get out of High School. I could not wait to get out of college.

Waiting has to do with time. We humans have little patience with the verb: to wait. We wait, out of necessity, for planes, traffic, our ship to come in, some forth coming event, out of necessity. Another sage piece of wisdom came to me recently. "Time waits for no man, and only 15 minutes for women". Make of that what you will.

I always/still want to get on to what was gonna' happen next...whatever it is.  I feel stagnant in a present that required the same old thing everyday: The cliche "Same thing different day" drives me crazy. It's one reason I like living on the land. You don't have to look hard to find something different to do at any given moment.

 I know people who go crazy not knowing what tomorrow will bring...what the paycheck will be every week, what they are gonna' have for supper every day. I call them "seasonals", as the only thing that changes in there lives are the seasons. Give 'em a line to stand in and they do it well..Same place at the same time every single day of there lives. Change is not in their vocabulary. Oh, the gripe about being in "the rut", but won't change a thing.  The only thing that changes with them are the appropriate clothes for the season.

Some "buck" the system in their youth, only to be drawn back into the fold by forces of society and biology. As a friend put it. "Never go to work for the man until you're financially embarrassed, or got a baby that needs a new pair of shoes, a wife that need two pair, leaving you with enough for none".

Our living is the death of us all...we are all subject to that common denominator. What we do in the time between birth and death is a highly personal journey; can't nobody can run that race but you. but  My feelings are the more you cram into a life, the better.

It may appear to others that I'm always waiting for something to happen. That's because they don't perceive things the way I do. I stay busier than a cat with diarrhea: two digging, two covering, and two looking for new territory. Just don't look like to most folks. Rolling stone gathers no moss, and I ain't mossy backed yet...Silver backed? Yes.

The following is an example of waiting as a virtue, and patience having it's own rewards.

I congratulate Son in Law, Brian Nuse.  He is now Dr. Nuse. I'm still not sure what he's PhD of, but I hope it comes with all the rights and privileges of being able to throw his knowledge around. Poor thing has been formally going to school since he was 5 years old. I haven't been alive that long. He did all this while being married, having a child, being a house husband and care giver to the two females in his life, and managed to satisfy the academics in his life. Have patience, persevere, and wait for the reward. Would that I had learned that lesson years ago

My brief brush will formal education was summed up by my Uncle, Dr. Robert Lancaster. He told me after I failed out of Sewanee that "You never let you're schooling interfere with you education".

I didn't realize the brevity of that statement for years. I was too busy. I had things to do, votes to win, babies to kiss, fish to fry,and all the rest. It took me another 40 years to figure it out. I think he was saying, "Education is the sum total of your Experience". I opted for experiences, I suppose.

Hmmm, does that mean I have a PhD in something...Dr. Ralph Stanley has a PhD. in Banjology. There may be hope for me yet.