Waiting for tomorrow

From My Perspective

Toni Walker

Editor

news@steelcountrybee.com

For as long as I can remember, it seems there has always been something to wait for. As an adult, I am beginning to wonder if all the “waiting for something else” has become a downfall of our society.

Even as young children, we are waiting. Waiting to go to school. Waiting for our next birthday. Waiting for Christmas. We wait for summer vacation, and whatever plans we have to get away from home for a little bit. Then, we wait to be a teenager, to be a part of the youth group because they get to do the fun stuff.

Once we become teenagers, we still can’t wait. We can’t wait to get our driver’s license, to go on a date, to go to prom, to graduate high school. What we are waiting for, or can’t wait for, changes, but the result is always the same. We keep missing the todays, looking for the things yet to come.

As an adult, surely it gets easier. But, anyone who is planning the adult game of life knows that it really is not. We are still waiting. Waiting to graduate college, waiting to get married, get a good job, or have kids. Once we have that job, we are still waiting…waiting for the next raise, promotion, or paid time off.

The same is true with kids, as well. We can’t wait to have them, then we can’t wait for them to start walking and talking. We wait for them to be old enough to stay home alone, and then old enough to help drive on road trips. Before we know it, we are waiting for them to come home and visit, waiting for them to give us grandkids, or waiting for them to call.

In the process of all this waiting that makes up our lives from birth until the day we die, there is one huge thing I feel like we miss. We miss life. We spend so much time waiting for the next stage in life, that we miss the here and now. We miss the special times with our kids snuggled up with us while they sleep. We miss those special times with our parent when they show us something new. We miss out on being who we are, while waiting for what we wish we were.

So, from my perspective, this is what I suggest we make a conscious effort to do…stop, enjoy what is happening in your life right now. Do the things you are waiting to do, someday, now. Go on a cruise, laugh at yourself. Dance in the grocery store aisle. It doesn’t matter, as long as you live the life you have, today. There will come a time when life will be nearing its end, and you will look back. From my perspective, I would rather see a life full of moments, than a lifetime of waiting.