Waiting Brings Engagement {Slice of Life}

This past Sunday I attended Ted Talk Columbus Women and heard about many brilliant opportunities and thinking happening in our city.  One speaker I would love to spend more time with was Paula Penn - Nabrit.  She was sharing about Biodiversity in Gardens and had started a church garden community in memory of her husband.  She had the biggest smile, I started taking more notes, and then I felt like a writer again.  She said three words and I started jotting notes about something from the day before; collecting seeds.

Paula Penn - Nabrit said, "waiting brings engagement."  I had to pause and think.  I wouldn't not of thought about this before and began to ponder if it was true.  My first reaction might have been waiting slows me down or waiting is annoying.  Then I ponder the last twenty four hours and by goodness gracious, she was right.

The day before I was in JoAnn's collecting some must have door buster items when the checkout line was SO long.  I had to wait to get these great prices.  As I waited, I practiced some breathing and noticed a mother daughter pair ahead of me.  I can't remember our first reason for engaging and soon we visited about our daughters in school, knitting, a new idea for a simple tree skirt, her plans for tonight and how she was going to modify the bustle of the evening ahead.  We even talked about if a recipe prep was really going to be five minutes and how she could probably hop in the shower while the dish baked.  Yes, waiting brought engagement.

Later that very same day I was in line to return something at Target when a young boy ahead of me sneezed three times.  I said my usual bless you and his mother said thank you.  I over heard her share with her son she always sneezes in threes.  I had to share my husband does too and I never heard of anyone else doing this.  We chatted with her own children about the sneeze quantity each time for them and I shared no one else in our family of five do a three in a row sneeze event regularly.  We then started wondering why and considered asking, "Dr. Google."

I don't know either ladies names or where they live.  I have no plans to connect with them again.  I'm not sure why I connected with strangers this day.  I think Paula Penn-Nabrit gave me more than motivation for gardening with others.  She made me stop and realize waiting brings engagement.  I enjoyed these conversations.  I smiled.  I felt in the moment.  Engagement fosters connections and connections is needed to our lives and world right now.  I'm going to be on the look out for more waiting opportunities.  

Thank you Two Writing Teachers for fostering this writing community each week.