The Art of Waiting

The Art of Waiting

We waited a while for this post, didn't we?

Well, far be it from me to make excuses, but perhaps I have actually begun to integrate the foremost tenet of Madrileño culture? Waiting has taken on an entirely different scale, set of assumptions, and has really been evolved into a credo here...one I have dubbed the "Art of Waiting."

A moment from several years ago comes to mind. How clearly I remember struggling with the momentary loss of the pace of New York City life! I was standing at the back of a interminable line at a post office with the most apathetic woman attending to customers, and knew I was there for at least an hour. An hour devoid of any real progress, any movement...an hour stolen from my busy and, up until that point, well-scheduled day.

I stood there, contemplating what waiting really meant. I stood there, stunned, thinking that really my entire life would be spent waiting. Waiting for my next vacation, waiting for my lunch to arrive, waiting to use the restroom, and, of course (avoiding, if possible, the connotation of a late-night college-era realization on [insert substance here]... ) waiting to die. Even when I am not consciously waiting, I'm still waiting all right.



















Acclimating to the pace of life in Spain has not only meant internalizing an entirely new schedule and set of expectations. To truly feel at home here means to take on an entirely different understanding of what it means to wait. Actually, the Art of Waiting, when perfected, really means you're not waiting at all. You've so absorbed the priority status quo that anything that takes time acts like a background operation. Waiting becomes a backdrop to the extent that you'll rarely see a tapping foot, hear a heaving sigh in a long line, or see anyone think twice about joining that long line.

I think there's something to be said of the fact that the word esperanza, hope, has its roots in the word to wait, or esperar.

As for me, I can only hope that I learn how to wait as well as that.