Waiting, Waiting……….

I met a friend for lunch the other day. She had misjudged the distance to the restaurant but was able to let me know she was running pretty late. I happened to have been early and had to wait. Ordinarily I would have whipped out my phone and killed the downtime by texting, reading emails, or looking at news stories online. I remembered what my son and I talked about just the other day, about the immediate dopamine hit people get from using their phones and decided, instead of reaching for that instant gratification, to wait for my friend. Sit and wait. Just wait. I sat in the booth at the restaurant, first with my hands resting on my lap and my feet firmly planted on the floor. I felt a little smug when I thought how grounded I was. But after only a minute or two, it became more and more difficult not to lean forward and rest my arms on the table top or cross my legs. Time and again I reached toward the pocket of my jacket, where my cell phone lurked. I longed to text my friend and ask her how much longer she would be. I had to struggle not to call someone to pass the time. I felt that today’s news bytes were extremely important, that I had certainly missed an urgent update. I took a breath and then several more before I finally was able to get in a good mental space.. .She finally showed up and apologized for being so late. I decided it was an important lesson for me and ended up thanking. her.

Image courtesy of CJ at Pixabay.com