By Danilo G. Mendiola

Today, the 15th of December, I spent almost the whole morning waiting for my youngest daughter Mae for her to finish her classes and exam at UP… Of course, I prepared for it.  I brought my notebook and pen, the novel I am currently reading, my book of Sudoku puzzles, and my walking gear.  I did my regular walking first around UP campus, then settled down in my car to do a puzzle, read some chapters in my novel, and then finally jotted down notes for this post until Mae texted me that she was done.  I drove her home thinking I have spent my waiting time wisely because I prepared for it.

But, let me tell you that I have not always been like this at waiting.  Believe it or not, I used to be very poor at waiting.  I always want action right away.  I expect concrete results as soon as possible, if not immediately.  At intersections while driving I hate to see the red or orange light.  I always thought the person in front of me in a queue is too slow, the bank teller is taking too much time counting money, the waiter is dragging his foot, and so forth and so on.   In other matters, I want to open my gift right away, eat my favorite dessert first before anything else.   In other words, I did not have patience, the virtue of waiting, or in the language of Psychologists, of delaying gratification.

What made me change little by little is the simple story I read of a young boy who was waiting for the butterfly to emerge from its cocoon.  She was totally fascinated by the whole process until she grew impatient and wanted to speed it up.  She decided on an experiment and heated the cocoon with artificial light although gently.  The butterfly soon emerged from the cocoon but with a defect – it has wings but they are too weak for the butterfly to fly due to haste and impatience. 

There was my own experience too with my son Nico who developed a very serious school phobia way back when he was 10 years old and in Grade 5.  We waited for many years doing everything possible to make him go back to school and when we realized he was not going back to school anymore due to severe psychological trauma, we tried everything to equip him with the basic education at home through tutorials and the help of others plus prayers and trust in God’s providence that He will make things beautiful in His own time.  Our waiting paid off after 7 long years when he suddenly decided to take the government’s placement test (PEPT) and became eligible for college without having gone to high school formally. He enrolled in college and successfully completed it without a hitch.

The lesson I want to share with you is that when we wait, as one spiritual text puts it: “we begin to see that what we await isn’t in our hands.  We learn to hope, trusting it will come.”