Welcome to “No Longer Waiting”!
You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place……for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a sting of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.NO!
That’s not for you!Somehow you’ll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You’ll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.With banner flip-flapping,
once more you’ll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!
–Dr. Seuss, Oh the Places You’ll Go!
Er, girl. I read that little jem to my kids a while back, and at the time, it really bothered me. At the time, it felt a bit like a cold, hard, slap in the face, considering that the title of my then blog was Sitting In the Waiting Room. I’ve lived most of my life, as C.S. Lewis says, “in the shadowlands,” thinking that the sun is always shining somewhere else. Around a bend in the road. Over the brow of a hill. Someplace that I currently am not. Sitting uncomfortably in the cold, but too afraid to find the warmest spot, for fear of making a wrong move. I am realizing that the sun shines on me, too. I feel it’s warmth. Right here. Right now. Ever since that fateful bedtime reading of a beloved children’s classic, I’ve been asking myself…What the hell am I waiting for exactly? Honestly, I don’t quite know anymore.
What I do know is this: I love my life. I am absolutely in love with my gentleman of a husband and am convinced I snagged one of the last great men on earth (Sorry, ladies!). My 4 kids are beautiful, healthy, and awesome, and I can’t believe how lucky I am to be able to hang out with them all day, and do things like go to the park, go to the pool, and eat ice cream. Seriously? This is my job? I live twenty minutes from my entire immediate family and get to see them quite often. Furthermore, I am surrounded by the best group of beautiful, kind, gracious women you would ever meet. There are, of course, a few friends that are too far away for my liking and that I would teleport here in a heartbeat if I could (you know who you are!). But other than that, I really can’t complain too much.
I am learning to love the simplicity of life. I am also learning that God is right here, in it with me. During the diaper changes. During the toilet scrubbing. During the pb & j assembling. I am not waiting for God to show up. For God to move. For God to speak. I carry God with me, always in my heart. God is already here, and has been all along. “There’s no place like home.” [click, click, click]…
Also, on a logistical note, starting a fresh new blog has given me the excuse to emerge out of the Dark Ages, i.e. Blogger, and reemerge with one of these WordPress beauties. I’ve been covetous of you WordPressers for long enough. So, I came. I saw. I conquered. Covetous no more!
So, I’m not quite sure what direction this new blog is going to take. If it’s any reflection of myself, which, I am sure that it will be considering that’s EXACTLY what writers usually do, it will probably move in a thousand different directions, often get sidetracked, lose focus, sit down to eat, take a nap, wake up again and wonder what the heck just happened. On a daily basis. Oh well, anything’s better than sitting still, I guess. 🙂
Angela Buckland
Wife to Ren for 23 years. Mom to 4 amazing teens. Writer. Creative. Entrepreneur. God chaser. Disciple maker. I love Jesus, and I love His Church. I inspire, challenge, and encourage women to pursue Jesus wholeheartedly, to lay hold of the abundant life in Christ waiting for them, and to become all God created them to be.
16 Comments
Derek
I hate Dr. Seuss but it’s funny where you can discover simple truths. What made you leave blogspot for wordpress?
Derek
Angela
D-, You HATE Dr. Seuss?!?!?!? Do you have some bad childhood memory associated with The Lorax or something? 🙂 I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that hated his stuff before.
WordPress has a lot of neat features that Blogger just doesn’t have. Things like Trackbacks and Pingbacks, which are pretty useful in the blogging world. It’s a little more technical. So, Blogger was great for me to get started on, but after blogging for a little while, I wanted to move up to something a little more sophisticated.
deWeb
dr seuss is the man. sorry, but i really think so. did you know that’s not even his real name?! =]
wordpress seems to have a lot more “right out of the box” options, that’s part of why i went that direction as well…actully because i didn’t know what i was doing when i started blogging and a friend recommended it…and it turned out to be a good recommendation.
good thoughts on deciding to “stop waiting.”
Angela
Thanks, Adam! 🙂
Amy F.
I love me some Angie B….the waiting kind, the cranky kind, the joyful kind, the running the race kind….they’re all precious to me!!!
Angela
So, you’re calling me “cranky”??? 😉 I love you, sweet Amy F.!
Ren Buckland
Congratulations Sweetie! The site looks great and reads smart. I love you.
Angela
Thank you, Babe. I love you, too. You rock.
Tony McCollum
Kiddo, I’m so glad to see you blogging again. I also love the name change and the attitude that goes with it. I can’t wait to see what gems emerge here. The world needs to hear from Angela Buckland!
Angela
Thanks, Pops!
Shannon
I cried. It was the “I love my life” part.
I love my life, too. I love all the messy weird parts. I love that I was pregnant in Ronnie’s boxers with hair dye on my head in the shape of a mohawk dancing in my kitchen yesterday, my kids running around me thinking nothing of it. I love that I looked down while brushing my teeth this morning and saw a door knob (a really cool antique, beautiful door knob with lots of stories) on the bathroom sink and realized– none of the doors in my house have properly working door knobs. They keep coming off and we get locked in rooms and such and. . . none of us are phased by this, at all. I wonder if that’s weird. But I don’t care, really. I love my life.
In your old blog, if ever you pointed out the weird, sometimes really hard moments of your life (and you do this so well- in such a funny way we all read on the edge of our seats) I would be smiling and then sometimes be startled to read something about you being unfulfilled or slightly unhappy but I knew in my heart you were really bursting with happiness, waiting to realize this.
I am so happy you have just let it burst. (and heh, hmm, give you the right to complain sometimes anyway).
I love you.
Angela
Awww, thanks so much, Shan! I love you, too. I feel that, in so many ways, I’m ready to turn over a new leaf. I am so grateful that I can express that and have such encouragement from folks like yourself. Thank you for sharing (and contributing to!) my joy.
Brandy T.
I love the new blog!! The title… the layout… fabulous! May you continue to find contentment, but never complacency, in the calling that you are fulfilling.
Can’t wait to read more!
Erin
I missed this very first post! That book is deep. I have thought so, reading it to my kids. Ya know, Dr Suess was an advertising guy, like Wes?
holly
will try not to pipe up on everything here…:) just wanted to say that you’re going places, you gotta lotta lovin and livin to do it’s true, great perspective! rachel hudson gave me this book about a year ago–the places you’ll go i mean–it’s encouraging to be reminded, glad you’re riding the waves of the spirit, ang!
tho i do tend to think that we are all still sitting in the waiting room of this world..and will be till “that day”!:) of course that’s just a different slant on the metaphor..
hollyet
ps. great job working the press here on wp! even tho i like it much better than blogger, i can’t figure out how to really use all the features..yours already looks top notch!