Waiting

I like walking.

My family has always been an active bunch. My sisters are incredible lacrosse players. My dad runs. My mom loves biking.

I like to walk, because it encourages conversation. I like lacrosse, but you can’t just stroll up to one of your opponents (or teammates) and say, “So, what did you think of Portlandia last night?” When you’re walking with other people, you can enjoy the fresh air and the feeling of accomplishing a workout, and the company of friends.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get anyone to come with me when I went walking today. With unavailability, inescapable piles of homework and disinterest all being excuses, I decided to go by myself. I bundled up in my favorite blue coat and slipped on an old pair of shoes, choosing to ignore the fact that I still had on my Hello Kitty pajamas.

When I went outside, I saw an amazingly clear blue sky. The sun was shining, but it wasn’t too hot or too cold. A puddle in our yard had almost completely frozen, and my favorite tree had shed all of its leaves. The worst part of winter is seeing the trees. In the fall, leaves are changing colors. In the spring, they’re growing. But in the winter, the leaves are gone.

It made me sad to think that a tree’s only source of beauty completely dies in the wintertime. After all, there are so many amazing things about winter: skiing, snowboarding, snowball fights, building fires in the fireplace, the season premiere of Psych…

But I realized something.

Trees don’t die in the winter. They’re waiting for the right time to grow leaves again.

We wait all the time. People wait for food, for amusement park rides, for movies to start, for colleges to send acceptance letters, and more. We don’t like having to wait, but most of the time; the reward is worth the wait.

If trees can wait an entire season until they grow new leaves, then we can wait five minutes for an order of fries.

If we’re honest with ourselves, a large portion of our lives involves waiting for something. If we possibly can, let’s wait patiently.

Of course, if that doesn’t work, we can always try getting our anger out in a healthy way- through a new sport, perhaps.