The Power of Waiting...

Speech therapy for a 17 month old who has yet to grasp the idea of talking. This is where I am spending some time today. Luckily, our speech therapist is awesome and fully tuned in to his needs. She gets him. She is patient and great at redirecting as he consistently loses sight of the activity at hand. She is also great at sharing literature, articles, book titles, etc.- all of which are right up my alley! I am truly a book geek at heart.

She shared with me a recent article entitled "The Power of Waiting" and I was instantly brought to my present moment. The writer shares how so many parents will talk "at" a child instead of with a child. How many times do I chatter without giving him time to acknowledge me or even process some sort of an answer or a sign or even recognition by eye contact? How frustrating for him, right? And, then, I recognized the parallels....

How often do we press forward without giving Source time to respond? How often do we pray without waiting for our prayers to be answered before diving in with our own solutions? How often do we chatter incessantly without allowing space for the answer?

In my life, in my head? Often! So, I am working to cultivate the wait. I want to achieve peace in the space between the question and the answer. Of course, I know that I don't have all of the answers and I do believe that someone up there does. I just have to wait. Patiently or impatiently, either way there has to be the time in between.

The same is true for conversations with our little one. I have to offer up time for him to make eye contact, sign to me or point or grin or acknowledge. The wait is hard. For me, it is. Instant gratification is so much easier but in the end, not really.

I'll wait. I'm practicing. I will be still. I will allow Spirit time to show me and answer me before I, in my impatience, react. I will practice the art of waiting.