Everything Else Is Just Waiting

Life is on the line and everything else is just waiting---Mr Wallenda, founder the Flying Wallendas


Life, unfortunately, is full of waiting. It’s when you are ‘all in’ that life is most exciting. How do we handle the waiting? If you are a Wallenda you fill the waiting with practice for the big event. The practice is living on the line as well. Life is chock-full of the mundane and the full press performances are just a blip.

I have a hard time with the get up, go to work, come home, pay bills and go to sleep kind of life. I must have something different on the calendar; a bike ride, a mini-getaway or even a day trip that is different. Those days don’t make one feel significant.

Somewhere in the taut walk on the wire we feel significant. We are using who we are. At the fullest we are fully using who we are to glorify who He is. The rest is waiting. In that waiting is the learning to know significance and to make it all count---even the hum-drummest of days.

Wind of Refreshing

The sweat tickles your nose and burns your eyes. You remove your hat to cool yourself off and the sweat flows down your face and your neck. All day in this wilderness and the heat is wearing you out. Placing the hat back in its place you find partial shade and a large rock. The shade helps but the rock is hard and warm to the touch. Laying down on the rock you watch as the horizon rises up toward the sun and shadows appear. Your senses subconsciously notice before you are aware of the change……….

Last Spring saw the death of my mom and a season full of hospital visits, funeral preparations and property issues. That season is still vivid and the fatigue still felt. On the heels of that year visits to the hospital to see my dad and watching his slow demise are harder dealt with. A small emotional ogre preys on me powered by dad’s violent attacks on his wife and the phone calls after each outburst. Arguing with my dad; his self-hatred and control-issues; the ogre crouches in the depths of my psyche.

Every work day draws a different battle. My staff overlooks things I think they should see. Quality seems less important than maintaining personal energy for their personal lives. Things constantly break. I constantly fix. I realize the problem is primarily me. I’m not energized by work, feels like classic burn-out.*

Life is static on the home front as well. Don’t reach for the psych manual yet. I’m not suffering from depression. There are aspects of the day that I fully enjoy, days with my daughter and jaunts in Joshua Tree. There’s a present dryness there though.

…….The wind is coming-a cool breeze, a hint of moisture, a drop in air temperature. As you breathe in through your nose you are reinvigorated. Steps seemed impossible in the heat but that little puff makes you want to dance the jig. It is a wind of refreshing. It is what I am praying for in this coming season. Join me, will you?

*Except I don’t believe in that.