Waiting on purpose

My friend Jon sent this really nice advent calendar http://www.q-creative.com/christmas/flash_calendar/
And here’s another that I also quite like
http://www.harpold.com/advent/

We spend a lot of life waiting. There is a temptation to fill all those waiting times with other projects, multiprocessing ourselves into oblivion. Just to wait—neither looking for distraction nor rushing the ultimate—is a worthwhile practice. But I never said it was easy. No easier than it is for the seven-year-old to wait for Christmas.

I wonder what the grown-up version of the advent calendar is. Maybe giving ourselves little treats. Maybe just remembering to open up the metaphorical little door and marvel over one small gift of the day.

Tonight brings a different kind of waiting. Outside my window, the first real snow of the season has hushed the world and stopped traffic up slippery Trombley Hill.

On my way home tonight, I watched the car in front of me fishtail up the hill. “Good thing I have front wheel drive!” I thought. Yeah, right. Eventually I had to recognize that my little Honda was not up to even the first hill, never mind the really steep one. I went around another way and came into my own steep driveway from the other side, maintaining enough momentum to slide right up to the front porch. Home at last!

That was two hours ago, and I don’t think another vehicle has come up the hill. It’s okay. We can wait.