"I hate waiting." - Inigo Montoya, in The Princess Bride
Two nights ago I uploaded my book to my e-publisher, Smashwords (link : http://www.smashwords.com/ ) under Non-fiction : Religion. It's available for download - really and for true, right now, for a tremendous price - $2.99 USD.
Now I wait for the book's various file formats to undergo review so that it can be marketed to all the different e-book sites like Amazon, Apple, and so forth. They tell me it takes about a week or so.
I've never been big on waiting. Which, I believe, is why I've been asked to do it so much. Wait in line at traffic lights, wait for word from prospective employers, wait for the phone to ring, wait in line at the bank, wait for ... the list is endless and varied from the mildest annoyances to the major things like saying to yourself, "It's just a matter of time before I'll get the call that ____ has died."
I'm better at waiting than I used to be. And I really don't think it's required to LIKE waiting. But perhaps - just perhaps - if I can let go of my need to control the outcome (like the ludicrous mental image of a passenger in an airplane being so impatient to arrive at the destination that he or she gets out of the plane to push - especially if it's in flight! o.O) and think instead of something meaningful to do while I'm waiting - perhaps the waiting won't seem so long.
There may be a secret hidden in all of this. My uncomfortable relationship with waiting is most likely linked to that obsession - that need I have had all my life - to control the outcome. To fix what's wrong. To influence the final result. To hasten the advent of something pleasant and delay the coming of something I dread.
In short, to be God. Strange that after all these millennia, people still want to occupy that position. Including me, it would appear.
Once in a while, I am reminded of my own powerlessness over that obsession with other people: whether serving them to my own detriment, or controlling them to theirs (and mine, ultimately). (I think that might apply to waiting for other people to do what they need to do and not trying to rush them.) Whenever I am, I have recovered enough from the bindings of the past to be able to stop, unhook from that kind of thinking, and consciously and intentionally leave the outcome to God.
Ahhhhh.... I can feel the tension draining from my shoulders and the load tumbling off my back. That's much better.
Two nights ago I uploaded my book to my e-publisher, Smashwords (link : http://www.smashwords.com/ ) under Non-fiction : Religion. It's available for download - really and for true, right now, for a tremendous price - $2.99 USD.
Now I wait for the book's various file formats to undergo review so that it can be marketed to all the different e-book sites like Amazon, Apple, and so forth. They tell me it takes about a week or so.
I'm better at waiting than I used to be. And I really don't think it's required to LIKE waiting. But perhaps - just perhaps - if I can let go of my need to control the outcome (like the ludicrous mental image of a passenger in an airplane being so impatient to arrive at the destination that he or she gets out of the plane to push - especially if it's in flight! o.O) and think instead of something meaningful to do while I'm waiting - perhaps the waiting won't seem so long.
There may be a secret hidden in all of this. My uncomfortable relationship with waiting is most likely linked to that obsession - that need I have had all my life - to control the outcome. To fix what's wrong. To influence the final result. To hasten the advent of something pleasant and delay the coming of something I dread.
In short, to be God. Strange that after all these millennia, people still want to occupy that position. Including me, it would appear.
Once in a while, I am reminded of my own powerlessness over that obsession with other people: whether serving them to my own detriment, or controlling them to theirs (and mine, ultimately). (I think that might apply to waiting for other people to do what they need to do and not trying to rush them
Ahhhhh.... I can feel the tension draining from my shoulders and the load tumbling off my back. That's much better.
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