Waiting Minutes
Hey Sunnies,
In August I traveled to Martha’s Vineyard. I had a wonderful time soaking up the sun, eating great food and spending time with my family. If you have never been to Martha’s Vineyard (MV), I highly suggest going in August. It’s black af and we filled our time with the MV Comedy Fest and MV’s African American Film Fest—lots of Black shit lol. Well, the island is very relaxing. No one is rushing to get anywhere. It’s a certain level of peace that comes with not answering to deadlines or watching the clock all day.
I realized how much our generation fills our waiting minutes. Ya know not the minutes where we’re actively doing something or getting somewhere, but the minutes spent in a line or waiting for your mom to get her Butter Pecan ice cream, those waiting minutes. The ones where we type our passwords in mindlessly and begin to scroll. I noticed that our generation uses the waiting minutes to check notifications, social media, texts, etc. However, the more seasoned generations just spend the waiting minutes waiting. Maybe it’s sparked by fear of embarrassment. Our generation always thinks somebody is looking at us or thinks someone else doesn’t think they're cool. I think this is the start of a lot of mindless scrolling. We don’t want to look like that one sad loner with nothing to do. But it leads to a lack of peace because of our fear that someone else is looking at us. The reality is no one is looking at us…
What would happen if we stopped trying to fill our waiting minutes. I tried to implement this concept on the island. While I waited for my friends at the bar or waited in the long Backdoor Donuts line, I tried to just wait and fight the urge to scroll and see what the world was up to. It honestly led to better presence and processing. I found that the waiting minutes helped me think about what just happened or what was about to happen instead of just going on autopilot. Even vacations can be strenuous. Most times you're trying to maximize your vacation time by seeing, doing and eating all you can. Well, this time I filled my waiting minutes with just waiting and the peace I felt was incredible.
In high school I had a screensaver that said, “there is always something to be done.” This reminded me to use the 5-10 minutes of downtime to go over lines or work on a homework assignment. That way I could fit anything and everything I wanted into my seemingly impossible schedule. I look back on that in sadness. I don’t ever wish anything different for the past because I know life always happens the way God intended it to. However, I’m sad that I felt the need to always do instead of just being and not feeling the peace of those waiting minutes.
When I left the island, the waiting minutes became less and less peaceful as I thought about every thing I had to do and all the projects I had to transition at work the next day. But when I got home I thought about implementing the waiting minutes in my day. Sometimes it’s impossible and I don't judge myself for that. But sometimes I have those minutes where I just wait…
forever blooming,
Mikaela Amira
