Living instead of waiting

I debated writing about my thoughts and feelings about what happened in Stockholm this Friday, but I felt drained by the thought, so I decided not to. I just want to mention that I have never loved and respected this city, the police, my neighbors and everyone I meet more. Love is stronger than hate. Always.

Instead I want to touch upon a subject that a lot of people can relate to; waiting.

It's something we do. We wait in lines. We wait for the weekend. We wait for someone who is late. We wait in traffic. We wait for the right person to come along. We wait for vacation. We wait for someone to fix us. We wait for happiness. 

I wish that word didn't exist. We're not waiting, we're just being, we're living. It's still minutes, days, weeks, years of our lives that pass by, but we name it waiting instead of living. 

I have had issues with waiting, and especially when it comes to appointments that other people are late for. But yesterday as I was waiting for someone who I knew would be late, I sat down and I did a semi-meditation. It was so peaceful and I didn't mind "waiting" because I filled that time with doing something I enjoy.

A lot of people wait for something all the time. If it's not just waiting for the bus that's late, it's waiting to find the "perfect" partner. Some people find that person and they are still in waiting mode, for that person to do this or that or until they become the person you want them to be.

I want to challenge the entire system. Why do you wait? Do you think life will be better later? When you're on vacation? When your spouse magically turns in to the perfect person? Do you want to look back on a 12 month period and only remember that one week you were in Spain on vacation, or do you want to remember all the moments, like that time you and your colleagues laughed at someones joke on a "boring" rainy Monday? Or only remember that one time your girlfriend/boyfriend/date gave you a special gift or said something memorable, instead of also remembering and valuing the talk the two of you had that was tough but brought you closer to each other and to understanding one another, or just eating breakfast in silence with your feet playing under the table?

I believe we will be able to gain so much more in life and appreciate life so much more if we start to appreciate the here and now, what we have and where we're at now. We can collect memories every single day.

Every moment counts, here and now. Monday morning meetings count, because it's 2 hours of our lives, and every minute counts. It's our lives people. Our lives. The moments won't come back, they're here and now. Even if the situation you're in is super boring or if you know that something you look forward too will happen on Saturday, try to fill the space with something meaningful and appreciate the moment.

It's up to us to fill our lives with meaning. We cannot wish away our days, they're too valuable. Way too valuable.