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The fear of boredom and the art of waiting
People can wait more easily for something when they are occupied. It’s doing nothing while waiting that they find hard.
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Not only can the period of waiting be pleasant, it can even be a period of growth.
ST ILLUSTRATION: MANNY FRANCISCO
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I’ve always hated waiting. When I enter a car park and there are no empty spaces, I drive out, rather than hover in the car. I fidget at traffic light stops. When early for an appointment, I walk around, or get on my phone. In the days before mobile phones, I used to delve into a book.
So it was hard for me when my newly-wedded husband D left our home, a fortnight after we got married, and embarked on a solo pilgrimage trek in Europe. The trip had been planned months before, and we had brought forward the wedding as we wanted things to be settled between us before he left.
