Celebrate Waiting By Celebrating The Mundane.

This week- I’m feeling a bit off. It is just one of those weeks that it doesn’t feel right but nothing bad has really happened. To be honest, I was ready for something to start, and when I had to wait it threw me off my game. 

For weeks, I’ve been psyching myself up for the beginning my second semester of my Master’s program. I thought that it was yesterday that I began again however, early in the week I was thrown off completely when I found out it was next Thursday my course resumes a normal schedule. It’s not a huge deal to wait for that but it’s not what I’d prepared for.

Though uni didn’t start again, I still had to wake up myself up, get on a bus and head back to Derry begrudgingly.  I wasn’t going for a lecture but to sign my name on a little piece of paper that says I’m still legally in Northern Ireland. 

It seems sort of crazy sometimes that I have to make the hour and five minute bus ride to the other side of the country only just to sign a piece of paper for the UK Border Agency. With my particular type of Visa, I have to report every week I am still in the country and it can’t be done at the campus that is in Coleraine.

Even though I haven’t wanted to make the trip on occasion, every time I do I am reminded of the adventure that I get to be on.

In my first days in Northern Ireland, a lot of memories were forever imprinted in my mind. It was the second day as my friend and I made our way out of Ballymoney, through Coleraine, across Limavady Mountain, and into Londonderry. It was mid-morning, and I was feeling jet lag mixed with excitement as I sat on the wrong side of the car, watching new scenery go by and falling in love with this country. Every time I board the bus and begin the trek, I am reminded of that morning.  Every time I pass a field, I remember a word spoken. When I pass a certain farm, I remember a look. When I see a tunnel of trees, I remember thinking it was like an epic tale coming to life.

Truth is that day was grand, but it wasn’t the marked point of beginning for anything other than that day. We sit around waiting for an larger-than-life story to come about. I’m more and more convinced that the moments we often mistake as mundane are the ones that are truly the epic ones. We’re just too caught on a bigger picture that we bypass the smaller ones. Everyday, every event has potential to be something more. I want to make the monotony of life epic. 

Every day I get to do something I’ve never done before. We all can. I’m not special over another person because of where I am. There is just a heightened awareness, I suppose, that I have because everything feels brand new being in a new country.

I had to travel to Derry yesterday and I already said I did it begrudgingly at first. On the bus I was reminded of my adventure. So, I chose to celebrate the mundane.

Yesterday I browsed a used bookstore. It looked interesting from the outside and inside it was awesome. As he ate oat biscuits (cookies) and honey straight from the jar, the shopkeeper and I chatted about his shop. It had been around for 20 years in that location and another 20 years somewhere else. I spoke of the many volumes housed on his shelves that would be hard to come by in the States. He asked what I’d find at home and he got all excited about books on the ‘Wild West’. I love books and want my own library in my future home, so this killed me that I couldn’t buy anything on that trip, and it killed the shop owner too. But I’ll have to go back.

Next door to this shop, was the most inviting coffee shop called the Boston Tea Party. I’ve never been in, but I’d seen it on a tourism film, so I decided it was time to go. It was a perfect place for tea and a warm mince pie mid-afternoon.

Across the redbrick walkway was a tourist shop full of postcards, sheep, Celtic knots, woolen clothing, and Guinness memorabilia. The woman working in the shop sat next to a kettle and had just poured a cup of tea as if she was waiting for her friend to arrive.

Later, I boarded the bus again, ready to put these thoughts down. These simple things made my heart full. 

I’m not going to pretend that I not hoping for more exciting things to happen in my life. I want more striking tales. We should have an expectancy of more as we grow and learn. I came to Northern Ireland prepared for something semi-defined, and it's not what I am receiving. It threw me off. I’m in a time of life where I’m waiting for some of what I'd prepared for. I also know that I had misled preparation and some things just are not happening. 

Waiting feels less than impressive. When time passes excitement can fade and difficult thoughts are thrown in the mix. We don't want to deal with the ugly, but I can understand that there are beautiful things in waiting, like grace, knowledge, wisdom, strength. That second day, traveling through Northern Ireland, was not a short trip. A lot of time passed. It was a memorable day as it was also filled with a few weird silences, swirling questions, and fear.

But I like to think that I’ve come along in my knowledge to be conscious that life is now. I like to remember events as they show me where I've come from. There are things I’m called to do in this moment even while I wait for XYZ. The adventure is in the moment.

I challenge you and I challenge me- as we wait (or waited) for something to start, not to become thrown off our game when it doesn’t happen when we expect it to. There are better things being prepared for us.