“I Wait” was written by Steve Sweeting, a songwriter, jazz pianist, and teacher who currently lives in NYC.
He and I have been friends since we began making music together in Allston, MA, a couple of decades ago.
“I Wait” is one of many songs we recorded two years ago for a CD of his music called Blame Those Gershwins.
I love this song’s bittersweet, thoughtful perspective.
It articulates how I often felt while I had a day job — and only made music at night and on weekends…
It wasn’t until I was laid off by the non-profit organization where I had worked for 16 years that I finally dared/cared to focus on music full time.
Making it.
Leading classes where we do it together.
Recording it.
Sharing it in retirement communities and assisted living facilities and public libraries.
That was almost five years ago.
And I am now grateful that I was laid off — although I was surprised and shocked and disappointed at the time.
Some of us (such as me) become so grooved/entrenched in the flow of our lives that we need to be forced by outside circumstances to make important changes.
I do not think that waiting is a bad thing.
Patience can be a virtue.
Learning to delay gratification can be a huge developmental step on the path to maturity.
And some animals wait patiently for hours before making their next move.
But — if I understand the concept of yin/yang correctly — within a reservoir of waiting there also lies a seed of activity germinating…
Just as our torrents of activity/accomplishment need to be interspersed with spaces of calm reflection and “not-knowing.”
Time to mull.
Time to muse.
Time to dream.
Time to imagine the consequences of how our actions might ripple for seven generations into the future here on planet earth…
What kind of balance are you able to find in your daily life between waiting and doing?
Thank you for reading and listening to this blog post.
And thank you to the photographers who made these beautiful images I found at Pixabay — and also to my sister Christianne, who (I think) took the photo of me gazing out over Cayuga Lake a few summers ago.
Tempus fugit…
amusicalifeonplanetearth 
Yes Will, time does fly. But when you can recount your history like you do, who cares?
Thanks, Jane!!!! After not having been inspired to write many posts in the first half of 2017, all of a sudden I am sharing one per week… I appreciate you making time to read and listen!
“i Wait” is one of my favorite songs on that beautiful album. It speaks to me. I never liked my mother’s quote “They also serve who only stand and wait” because I felt it was about how I should be available all the time to help her with things, but I love this yin/yang idea of yours and think it is true: “within a reservoir of waiting there also lies a seed of activity germinating.”
I think you have written in past posts about the value of activities such as gazing at clouds. In our 21st century, gadget-obsessed, accomplishment-driven culture there are so many devices which allow us to access thousands (millions?) of seemingly important/necessary songs, blog posts, reality shows, well-crafted TV dramas, insightful comedy specials, etc.etc. etc. that simple downtime may have become a rare experience for some of us. And there are also religious/cultural admonitions not to become slothful — such as “the devil makes work for idle hands” — to be reckoned with. One of my friends told me many summers ago, however, about the wonderful word “estivation,” which is a summertime version of hibernation. Let us estivate for a few more weeks and see what seeds of activity might be germinating…
It’s so wonderful that you were laid off from your job! Isn’t that weird to say? But it seems to have been just the thing to free you to go where you wanted. I think I probably spend too much time doing and not enough waiting and musing. I’ll need to muse about that . . .
Your reply about “needing to muse about that” made me laugh. Apparently my brain found it a-musing. Thank you for reading (and musing), Kerry Can.