Waiting for Christmas

I haven't really waited for Christmas for years and years.  Usually there is so much to do, I'm not conscious of waiting.  This year we are traveling to be with the family in Michigan and have experienced some serious waiting at the San Francisco airport.  Ground fog was the cause of our 8 hour delay.  While the inbound plane was held circling, waiting for the fog to lift, it ran short of fuel and was diverted to San Jose, where it waited on the ground for 4 hours.  To top it off, just as we were set to finally board, the pilot and crew announced they had worked 20 minutes over their hourly limit and we had 3 more hours to wait for the new pilot and crew.  We missed the flight to Lansing and have to wait until the same flight the next day.

The first thing I noticed as I reflected on  this long wait was that we are not in control.  At first the time passed slowly and soon my usual portion of patient waiting was running low.  Children were crying, people playing with their IPhones.  I decided to go inside to my "happy place" where I am peaceful.  There, I just go with the flow, even when the flow is blocked.  There I don't move toward boredom or stress.  The issue, I decide, is how I respond with an unexpected long wait at the airport.   My choice is whether I get upset, stressed or not.  I am peaceful.  I imagine that people spend big bucks to go on vacation to find a place where they aren't stressed.  I recognize I'm in a Zen like state, here at the airport and it was free for my choosing.   Other people are choosing peace as well.  I notice people engrossed in long conversations or just sitting back watching.  I watch and remember that watching is one of the chief tasks of Advent, waiting and watching for the coming of Christ with us.  Christ, the new light of higher consciousness, is to come.  I find in this time of waiting, awareness of our inter-connectedness to each other, to the natural world and when I expand to the Universe.  I see the little pieces of light in other people and if I sink deeply into my Zen state, I become aware of the love that is around and within us.  Waiting..........how hard it is to wait and yet in my very waiting I find the gifts of the season.