Waiting is the time between the wish and life

This weekend I had the distinct pleasure of spending a couple of days with my boys at Great Wolf Lodge in Cincinnati, OH. For those of you that aren’t familiar with this place, it is an “indoor theme park” of sorts. They have water slides, play areas, pools, ships, water guns, obstacle courses, scavenger hunts, an arcade, and any other shiny pretty thing that would attract the eye of a child. The boys call this place “heaven on earth.” I, however, like to refer to it as “the money trap.”

Even though our time there was non-stop and active every single hour of the day, I still had plenty of time to think.

After all, thousands of people + 6 water slides = long lines

But never fear, I used my time wisely. While standing in these lines I started thinking about the society we live in. You know, the one where we want everything and want it NOW! We live in an instant world with instant coffee and instant messaging. We wait for NOTHING! We can fast forward our commercials, email our letters and drive through for banking, meals, prescriptions and laundry.

And because we are accoustomed to waiting for nothing we tend to get irritated when we have to wait for our computers to boot up, our cars to warm up and the doctor to call us back when our kids are sick. It’s times like these when life seems slow. Very slow. Sometimes, unbearably slow.

So while I was toe taping and counting the number of people in front of me in line I started thinking about the things in life that are WORTH waiting for, and I was honestly surprised at how many things I was able to come up with

• My grandma’s home made Oatmeal Raisin cookies

• Babies

• First kisses

• Chance meetings

• A proper good bye

• Handwritten notes

• My birthday

• Christmas morning with my kids

• Someone who loves me, even on the days when I don’t necessarily love myself

• Fresh tomatoes from the garden

• The perfect pair of jeans that cost more than my monthly car payment

• The perfect Mother’s Day gift, a macaroni necklace, or a hand painted pot

• When “I love you” is said sober, fully clothed, and vertical

• Good movie sequels

• Waiting for your friend to send you pictures of Ryan Reynold’s butt

• Snapping the perfect picture

• The happy squeals of my boys

• The first time you run into an ex while on another date

• Hitting all the green lights on your way to work

• Chest hair to come back in style

• A salad made by someone else

• The perfect man

• The perfect milkshake

• The first beautiful day of Spring

Suddenly waiting doesn’t seem so bad.