22nd December 2008

I loved this, from Paula Gooder's excellent book...

It was only when I was pregnant with my first child that I realized I had completely misunderstood what waiting was about… Waiting makes me anxious, restless and uneasy. Imagine my bemusement then to encounter an experience that is entirely about waiting…

It was during the period of enforced waiting that I began to discover that waiting is not just about passing the time between the moment when the expectation is raise and when it comes to completion, in this instance between conception and the birth, but that it has deep and lasting value in and of itself.

…The waiting of pregnancy is about as active an occupation as one can hope to engage in. Pregnant waiting is a profoundly creative act, involving slow growth to new life. This kind of waiting may appear passive externally but internally consists of never-ending action and is a helpful analogy for the kind of waiting Advent requires. For many of us, Advent is such a busy time with our preparations for Christmas that the thought of stopping and sitting passively – while attractive in many ways – is simply impossible. Advent, however, does not demand passivity but the utmost activity; active, internal waiting that knits together new life.

The Meaning is in the Waiting, Pp5 and 6 by Paula Gooder. Printed by Canterbury Press, 2008