by Robert E. A. Lee

    
Please wait…
Thank you for waiting.
Wait a minute! Just wait!
Your patience is appreciated.

Patience? What patience?
Can that sweet recorded voice “see” my impatient face
or “hear” the frustration in my voice?

I hate to wait. This impatient patient is not patient.
I am a child in my old age of this age:
instant retrieval --
all we need to know within our grasp
from pushbutton, mouse click, coded card,
remote in hand.
Intolerable
when computers go down
battery cells expire
phone lines lie dead.
Blackouts seem catastrophic --
third-worlders nod knowingly.

Impatient I am with my impatience.
Penitent, I petition for patience.
I wait for the Lord.
Don’t rush me, I sense Him saying.
Slow down. Take it easy. Breathe deeply!

I do a search-engine search for His answer
where I was taught to find it.
Fingers find the frequently found, friendly fold
and lo! The memory passage
(Petrine advice I had once claimed as my life ethic)
presents itself:
You can do this by adding goodness,
understanding, self-control,
patience…
devotion to God, concern for others
and love!

Lord, wait -- let me absorb it again.
And then?
Wait.
I wait.

[Written in memory of my wife Elaine on the fourth anniversary of her death.]

Page last modified by Richard Lee on 9 November 2004