Waiting.
There is much of that while going through a divorce. You wait your turn at Court. You wait for your lawyer to return your call. You wait for your ex-spouse to respond to your settlement offers. You wait for the support check to arrive. You wait for escrow to close on your old house and the new house.
The problem with waiting is it reminds us that we cannot control everything we face; we cannot control the timeline to get this done.
Most people want their divorce over before I meet them. I understand that.
Here’s my favorite poem about waiting:
Waiting
Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea;
I rave no more ‘gainst time or fate,
For lo! my own shall come to me.
I stay my haste, I make delays,
For what avails this eager pace?
I stand amid the eternal ways,
And what is mine shall know my face.
Asleep, awake, by night or day,
The friends I seek are seeking me;
No wind can drive my bark astray,
Nor change the tide of destiny.
What matter if I stand alone?
I wait with joy the coming years;
My heart shall reap where it hath sown,
And garner up its fruit of tears.
The waters know their own and draw
The brook that springs in yonder height;
So flows the good with equal law
Unto the soul of pure delight.
The stars come nightly to the sky;
The tidal wave unto the sea;
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
Can keep my own away from me.
—John Burroughs