My wife sometimes wonders how much time we spend in life waiting. Waiting in lines, waiting while being placed on hold, waiting in traffic, etc. Right now I am in a classic waiting mode: waiting to hear something after you've applied for a job. Unlike many types of waiting, this waiting doesn't necessarily have an identifiable end time or date. In fact, since you may get no response at all, you may not know when the waiting technically stops.
Now that I've applied for an open position in our district as an assistant principal, I find myself going through an all too familiar pattern. Some days I feel rather confident. On other days, I feel I have no chance. I read meaning into otherwise meaningless events, thinking they bear some hint about my standing. I become cautious to avoid jeopardizing my chances. I take measured steps to improve them.
The truth, to answer my wife, is that we can't know how much time we spend waiting because we don't wait in isolation. We live life within layer upon layer of contexts. Though we may wait in one context, life goes on in all the others. During some stretches of time, we may be in a continual state of waiting, in one form or another. That's where I am right now, in fact.
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