Patiently waiting...

Truth be told, I really haven’t seen that much of the world, I’m sorry to say. As a kid, my family had an atlas, where my siblings and I would spend time just staring at all the different countries. Personally, I had a few places on my bucket list that I wanted to visit, but at the time, it seemed like a pipe dream for reasons that I won’t get into.

 This year has been particularly trying. I won’t bore you with the specifics, but needless to say, it could be better. So, when some much-needed vacation time came up, I jumped on it like a cat on a ball of yarn. However, a question needed to be addressed, i.e. where to go? Finances being a factor, it could not be anywhere far or expensive.

 This led to my decision to visit the city of Tromsø in Northern Norway. While Tromsø functions as a city, truth be told, it seemed more like a small town. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not judging or complaining. Upon my arrival there, I was stuck with the dilemma of how I would utilize my limited time there. The answer to my query presented itself in a brochure for a tour group to view the “Northern Lights”.

 I’ll spare you the technical jargon and simply define it as a physical phenomenon where streaks of green hue will appear in the night sky of the northern regions of planet earth. Tromsø’s tourist population makes a point of how it's something that has to be seen. So, when the opportunity presented itself, like the aforementioned metaphor, I jumped on it.

 Now, I won’t go into the details of what happened during the trip, but I will share an experience. I, along with nearly a dozen or so tourists, stood in the freezing snow in the middle of nowhere with various cameras and props, hoping to get a picture or even a glimpse of it. Initially, it was too cloudy to see. Sensing my discouragement, our guide looked at me and simply said: “You’d be surprised how quickly the weather can change out here”. And he wasn’t wrong. Within the hour, the clouds had cleared and the light show began. And what a magnificent light show it was. An experience that was well worth the 4 hours spent in sub-zero temperatures, freezing our collective toes and asses off.

 For those of you that may have gotten lost during the course of description, allow me to redirect you. This isn’t some stupid vacation story that I’m sharing. It’s a perspective that I discovered. Gazing up into the night sky, I saw something truly remarkable and astonishing. But, what made it special was the view of the lights after having spent a considerable amount of time waiting, setting up, and just being patient. Despite my initial skepticism, my patience was rewarded.

 And that was the lesson I took from that. Life’s hard. It never gets easy and it’s a constant stream of one battle after the other. But, every so often, life will throw you a bone and give you a break. Provided that your patient enough to wait for your opportunity and willful enough to go out and get it when it presents itself.

 So, what I learned from my whole trip was that good things do come to those who wait. While patience hasn’t always been my strong suit, it’s something that I will have to work on. But, I’ll get there.....hopefully, if I’m patient enough.

 My only regret is that I had to travel to the north pole to learn that lesson. But as a Buddhist monk once said "Life is not about the destination, it's about the journey". I suppose this was just another journey I had to take.

 So, get out there, folks. Take your journeys and learn your lessons. Life tends to be much more fun with them.