Waiting periods are uniquely unsettling. It seems the whole world is currently waiting around for things to “go back to normal.” There is only speculation about when this all might end. None of us really knows. For people who value a sense of control, that can be rather unsettling. Maybe this is our new normal. It seems to be, at least for a time. What’s problematic is that we believe we deserve to have a stable, comfortable, unfettered existence. While it is likely things will return to a form of normalcy, there is no guarantee. And if we are only waiting around, pining for normalcy, we might fail to gather what this present struggle has to offer.
One of the things that happens in these periods is that we enter a state of unknowing for an undetermined amount of time. Our minds do not settle into a steady state, as they want to. This can help us live in the present if we let it. When you don’t know what the next day will bring, you must just live today. What do the next 24 hours hold for us? Or better yet, what is in this moment for us? There may be pain and also joy.
Accordingly, these periods can be an entrance into non-dual consciousness. We don’t know if what is coming is relief or more bad news, so we must just be prepared for both. If we have learned to grieve the losses and also receive the gifts, neither can disturb us from this present moment. We don’t deserve either, and we do not demand of this moment or the next.
Some people seem like they were made for these periods. It is like they have been waiting around their whole lives for these waiting periods. The ambiguity and uncertainty don’t seem to disturb them too much. There is something in these waiting periods that may not have come about otherwise. Many seem to find their best creative selves. Some are looking for ways to help. Some are finding new and refreshing ways of living. My hope is that we are all able to settle into these waiting periods the best we can and find a new way of embracing exactly what these moments have for us.
The relative sense of comfort in which we normally exist has drugged us and we believe we are not on the precipice at all times. What we don’t realize is that we are always in these waiting periods – something good or bad could happen at any moment. Life is pretty much an even split. The urgency and preciousness of life we grasp when we engage in the present is available to us all the time if we will only take the time to realize our state.