DURING one early morning, I was at the subdivision office to pay our water bill and I noticed it was already starting to fill with clients who awaited their turn. As I made my way to an available seat, I noticed there were a few fellow seniors among us.
That, at least, prepared me for the probability I would have to wait for my turn to be served a while longer. I also noted a bunch of much younger people among us in the group, and judging from their stiff positions in the lengthening queue, I knew right away that these guys weren’t just as easily willing to give in to some old people. Not today, oldies.
Aside from being fidgety, some were regularly checking their watches. I instantly assumed they must still be on their way to work. In a passing thought that went by me , I’m reminded of those villains in the movies, waiting for a signal to announce a holdup, with their tell-tale nervousness clearly in their posture.
Then, as though in cue, a few of them sprung up and went ahead of the early seniors, causing quite a stir to two old ladies, one of whom made a frown which indicated they were bypassed and not given priority.
In some parts, I thought, there’s no such thing. So, I just sat calmly and watched what little drama was playing before me.
No worries, I said to myself, we could do this all day. I wasn’t going anywhere. Not a type of patience I have acquired through the years, this. It’s just that lately, I have begun to slow everything down, calm waters cruising speed, and merely let whatever is before me unfold.
At this phase, I feel people like us, who had enjoyed life during the 70s while in their twenties and are ironically now in their 70s during these fast years of the 20s, need to get better at dealing with changes.
Back to baby steps. Black Sabbath had sung back in the day, I’m going through changes. Not empty words, I say.
So I, during that early morning, while waiting for the line to thin, I’m just content, as though watching an imaginary parade in my head. No worries, no hurries. If I started to think of other people’s schedules and trials for this day, whatever for? I cannot control them.
All I know, when this waiting is over and I walked over to the lady at the window, paid my due and headed for home, I’d again set my sights on other chores, not heavy work as the young are able to do, but perhaps some slow, deliberate tasks that might open for me, waiting time again.
