One of the good things about being poor is that one learns to wait. One waits for the bus, one waits for other people to take one somewhere not on the bus lines. One waits for money, one waits for job interviews, one waits to get online in public places, one waits to buy another phone card when one runs out of money and so on.
Waiting creates two things. The first, because of the daily practice of patience, one learns that one is not the center of the universe who will have needs met immediately.
Second, one learns humility. One is not only NOT the center of the universe, but not the center of anyone's life.
I know that I live daily with many one person in the world thinking about me, sometimes. I know that I am invisible, as are most of the poor, who have no voice, no influence.
I prefer this to anything else as I know there is One Person Who thinks of me constantly, and that is God, as I would not exist without His constant thought of me.
Waiting creates detachment from people and things. Waiting leaves time for reflection and even a rosary.
I can wait for God.
Simone Weil, about whom I have written on this blog before, wrote this:
Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be obtained only by someone who is detached.
Weil also wrote that humility is attentive patience.
Waiting makes reality really real.......waiting makes me attentive.