Wisdom During Waiting
“To the disciples who were always asking for words of wisdom, the Master said, ‘Wisdom is not expressed in words. It reveals itself in action.’ But when he saw them plunge headlong into activity, he laughed and said, ‘That isn’t action. That’s motion.’”—Anthony de Mello.
Manet. fainting Couch
There is a Greek myth about Psyche and Eros that many people doing Jungian work use to describe women’s growth in consciousness. The story is the basis for She by Robert Johnson and Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis. In order for Psyche to reunite with her lover, Eros, she is given several tasks. At the beginning of each task, Psyche collapses and weeps as she sees that the task is insurmountable.
My image is Psyche lying on one of those old-fashioned fainting couches that every woman of means once possessed—with her hand turned palm up on her forehead, her eyes closed, and her head leaning backwards on or off the couch. It is the feminine body language of surrender and stillness.
Instead of plowing directly into an arduous task before us, the feminine energy in us waits, rests. In the waiting, answers come that are completely out of the box. They are truly answers to prayer. Some would say these solutions are received from the Spirit of God within her. Help comes from places she never imagined.
This is wisdom: the action of waiting, stillness, especially before we are asked to do something we do not think we can do.
I remember waiting in an outer office before a difficult meeting with other physicians. At first it upset me that I, this important person, had to wait! Slowly I realized that the waiting was a gift, wisdom from a mysterious source. It was a time to quiet myself, to surrender to the moment, and to be still before going in to this difficult meeting. When I could do this, I carried with me the feminine energy of staying in relationship with those around me. This made all the difference.
We find ourselves today in a waiting period. We wait for a vaccine. We wait for our lives to become more normal. We wait for a transition for government. We wait to see our children and our grandchildren. We wait to go back into church. We wait to return to work. The list goes on. This can be seen as a precious time or an anxious time. We have a choice.
Joanna Seibert. Joannaseibert.com
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