"the waiting drove me mad..."

For those of you who don't recognize the song quote, it is the opening line of 'Corduroy' by the legendary Pearl Jam (if you don't know the song, listen to the version off of the concert album "Live on Two Legs" which features a wicked song-closing solo by lead guitarist Mike McCready) but it could equally apply to how I am feeling about my life right now. I feel the the dude who is on-deck in a baseball game. You know, he is swinging his bat in the on-deck circle (with one of those weighted donuts on the end to make it heavier) just waiting for his turn to hit. He's almost there but still so far away at the same time. Don't get me wrong, life is great! I am getting married to the finest woman I have ever known who is going to be a fantastic partner for me. I have been accepted to at least one of the grad schools to which I applied (Dalhousie in Halifax, for those who don't know) and there is a plethora of other blessings that God has bestowed upon me. I just really want to get there now! I feel antsy about everything right now, both big and small: I want to hear back from the other grad schools (if I get into U of A, we will be going there), I want the item I ordered on eBay to come, I want to be finished working at Kids Klub, I want to get married, I want to be recuperated from my leg issues so that I can run pain free, I want the Leafs to overtake the rest of the East and then win the Stanley Cup, and I want it all NOW!

This is the only problem: life does not work that way. Patience and waiting are telling signs of maturity and God wants me to rely on Him solely rather than fretting. Admittedly, this is a lot harder to say than it is to practice. I find myself constantly frustrated that things aren't moving along as quickly as I would like. I feel as though I have waited so long to figure out what I want to do with my life that when I finally apply to graduate school, I want to know IMMEDIATELY whether or not I have been accepted. I want my leg to be better without having to do all the rehabilitation work necessary to strengthen it at the gym. I want the result without doing the work of prayer and patience to arrive at the result in God's time. I recognize my need to work on this, taking one day at a time, and being thankful for the place in which I find myself now. I believe that it is called contentment. To close, a very famous quote (though I do not know whom to attribute it to): "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."