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11/05/2008

wait

Lately, I've had the odd sense that waiting - for anything - isn't so bad after all. I don't have the words to explain this newfound enlightenment yet, but I do feel a strong peace at the moment, here in the rocking chair. Waiting for health is good. Waiting (at age 33) for a baby is good. Very peculiar, and so not like my nature. Thank God.

Anyway, I read another quote from Acedia & Me that I feel compelled to share:

"Waiting seems at odds with progress, and we seldom ask whether it might have a purpose in and of itself. Etymology helps us here, for when we look up the word wait we are instructed to see vigor. Waiting, then, is not passive but a vigilant and watchful activity designed to keep us aware of what is really going on. Isaiah evokes this radical waiting as a source of vitality: 'Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, / they shall mount up with wings like eagles' (Isaiah 40:31). Such waiting is meant to engender a lively hope rooted in the physical as well as the psyche. It is an action, the 'hop' contained within the word. To hope is to make a leap, to jump from where you are to someplace better. If you can imagine it, and dare to take that leap, you can go there - no matter how hopeless your situation may appear."

Thanks to Kathleen Norris, I'm transforming into an etymology nerd. I even put a book (that she references often) on my wish list: Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English by Eric Partridge. However, I'm much more comfortable with nerdiness in my 30's, too.

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

It is a great place to be. It usually takes waiting on something ie. health or a baby to get to that place and realize it is all in God's timing.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes I feel like my youth is being wasted waiting and being patient. It makes me want to stomp around like a little kid. But I agree that it's not a bad place to be, and that God can do amazing things in that time. And I hope your health is 100% soon!

By the way, how is Acedia & Me comparing to Norris's other books?

allison said...

As Tom Petty says, "The waiting is the hardest part." :)

jenni said...

I agree, Jennifer.

Thanks, Lindsay! I think Acedia & Me is one of Norris' best. The Cloister Walk is still my favorite, but this one is close.

Allison - :)