Nyel Waits Patiently

There’s a lot being said these days about where our educational system has gone wrong or what we need to do better to prepare our youth for the future.  We read about the need for teaching critical thinking skills and that there should be a requirement for learning how to participate in civil discourse.  I couldn’t agree more.  But, right now, I’m thinking that one of the most important life-long learning necessities is How to Wait Patiently.

When you come right down to it, we probably spend as much of our lives in waiting than in any other single activity.  I’ve read, for instance, that the average person spends 38.5 days in their lifetime brushing their teeth, 101 days driving, and 25 years sleeping,   Granted, these are all activities we might be doing while we are engaged in waiting… but when waiting is the primary focus, how should we do it productively and with grace?  Those are the questions.

Waiting is much on my mind because, when it comes right down to it, being in the hospital – either as a patient or as a loved one – is all about waiting.  Since Nyel’s admission on Monday afternoon, we have been waiting for his system to be purged of an old medication, for a new medication to take hold and, ultimately, for all systems (including the doctor’s schedule) to be a “go” for a cardioversion. Well, actually, we are actually waiting, ultimately, to go home with Nyel in better fettle than before.

Sydney Waits Productively (?)

Current estimates are that the ‘procedure’ should occur around 2:30 this afternoon.  Once accomplished, we will wait to see if it his heart is back in the intended rhythm and then we wait to see if it will stay there until our next hospital procedure on March 15^th. The operable (so to speak) word in all of this: wait.

To the best of our ability, we are waiting patiently, if not totally productively.  Nyel has been doing crosswords and watching the news on TV.  I’ve been working on the sequel to my Ghost Stories book (thanks to the possibilities of online research) and trying to keep abreast of emails and FaceBook messages.  We have also seen two of the movies offered on the “in-house TV menu’ – “White House Down” and “Reacher.”  And, of course, we eat (except not Nyel since midnight last night), we sleep, we listen to nurses and doctors, and we try to stay positive.

My only conclusion:  Waiting is hard.  It ought to be at the top of the basic learning list.  You know: ‘W and the Three Rs’.  Or wait (ahem!).  Is that a music group?