I am waiting for a flight to Spain at JFK. This is the in between time. I have internet, I have a couple of hours, and I have a to do list. I can wander the shops, people watch, count the tails on the plans getting ready for other destinations or I could bemoan the waste of time. I might have done that some years ago but one of the insights of aging has been to learn that waiting – waiting in line, waiting for a friend, waiting for a plane- can be a gift.
It’s anything but wasted time, Rather its boundedness makes it a luxury. From the time you are ready to the time of the event is like a comfortable chair with a good book on a rainy afternoon. Devoid of demands it is a place to settle into – because it is temporary, fleeting and in most ways there’s not much you can do to change the frame that time is holding. I have come to relish this space – this place between. Not yet gone, but not ready to leave, present in the in between.
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