"A waiting person is a patient person. The word “patience” means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us. Impatient people are always expecting the real thing to happen somewhere else and therefore want to go elsewhere. The moment is empty. But patient people dare to stay where they are. Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there. Waiting, then, is not passive. It involves nurturing the moment, as a mother nurtures the child that is growing in her womb."
Henri Nouwen, The Path of Waiting
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Photo: taken last summer when I was in Florida for my high school reunion. I didn't know the people walking ahead of me on the beach; I was just trying to capture the moment. The low exposure from the dusk light makes this almost look like a painting. I suppose thinking of a picture from a past Florida vacation while firmly in a cold and snowy mid-February betrays an impatience to not stay where I am as Nouwen encourages. Let's think of it instead as a mental and spiritual positioning within the big world filled with joy and beauty of which we're a part, even as staying in place.