Long waits are difficult to endure. In life, there are issues that present themselves like long waits. The Trump criminal investigation is one of those long waits--we've watched the Trump team conduct themselves in corrupt, dishonest, hateful, and hurtful ways day after day for years and years. It has been a nagging sore with regard to what is right and good for our country. So many of us can't wait until he is prosecuted and hopefully lands behind bars. Day after day he lies and spreads propaganda that serves to divide our country and harm and hurt people. For example, he's never condemned Putin's carnage in Ukraine--that alone shows his utter lack of support for what is right and good for humanity. Trump and his corrupt cronies are a true danger to good lives the world over. Waiting for his corruption to end has been a long wait, and with every day more evidence and news of his wrongdoing are revealed. When will this wait be over?
Long waits happen with illness too. As we watch an illness affect us or a loved one, it's often a long wait to recovery or sadly, inevitable death. These long waits related to illness are very difficult because these long waits are emotional, sad, worrisome, time-consuming, and often confusing.
Long waits can happen with regard to obtaining professional licensure, credentials, promotion, or new jobs. You put your best foot forward. You do the work needed, and then you wait until that day arrives when you achieve the professional goal you've worked for.
For some, there are long waits to have children. I have had many friends for whom pregnancy took way too long or didn't happen at all. Those loving parents had long waits to conceive or to adopt, but in almost every case, their dreams of having a family were eventually fulfilled.
Saving to buy a home can spell a long wait similar to any big dream you may be saving for or working for.
How do we deal with the long waits in life? What do we do?
The long waits give us time to think deeply about that which we are waiting for, and these long waits give us time to perfect our work, deepen our love, learn, and do better. During a long wait to institute a new model of teaching at school years ago, I found that my commitment to that model and the rationale of why that model would be successful grew deeper. So by the time we started, we were ready to do an awesome job.
The long wait as I watch a loved one suffer from an illness has given me lots of time to demonstrate my love, revisit shared memories, and remember the good this person has done for me and others. As I watch my loved one endure what some call "the long goodbye" I've had the chance to think a lot about what's important in life too and about my own longevity as well.
If we have to find something good about the long wait to witness Trump's conviction, it might be our chance to think deeply about what it means to live in a democratic nation and what that takes to make democracy continue in the United States. Trump and his cronies' corruption has demonstrated what can happen when we don't pay attention to the work we all have to do to keep our democracy alive.
Long waits build our patience, commitment, and understanding. Long waits happen, and our only choice is to endure those waits with the best of who we are and can be. Onward.