Waiting

I'm impatient. It's one of my most profound characteristics. I get bored quickly. I did a lot of thinking - was forced to, actually - during the marathon. At about mile one, a runner realizes that he or she has to re-enact that mile 25 more times. For multiple hours on end.

This realization freaked me out. Messed with my head. Running has taught me a patience I haven't previously known. It's taught me a focus that I have been able to apply to other things. More than anything, I've learned to wait, and enjoy the "meantime."

I just read a great post on Johnnie Moore's blog, on waiting. Read the full reference at Chris Corrigan's blog. At the core of the conversation is the ability to wait productively and use that meantime as an opportunity to focus on the unknown, on the moment, on the chance that anything could happen. Chris outlines two kinds of waiting:
1) learning to productively wait - in a grocery line, for instance -
and how that can prepare one for the second type
2) the waiting when we are fully engaged in the present - "It is waiting for something to emerge, something life changing, possibly life threatening, and yet with no way to know how it will all unfold. Radical trust into the moment, radical readiness to accept what will come." (Corrigan)

Corrigan continues: "We can practice for these kinds of moments by embracing the first kind of waiting, which gives us the capacity to appreciate the second kind on those rare occasions in our life when we are gifted that experience."

Heady stuff, but profound in its opportunity to focus and engage in the present. I love it.

Off topic (who would have guessed). Top five songs about waiting in my iTunes music library:

5) In the Waiting Line - Zero 7
4) Waiting Around to Die - The Be Good Tanyas
3) Sitting, Waiting, Wishing - Jack Johnson
2) Waiting on the Sun - The Jayhawks
1) Waiting in Vain - Bob Marley