{"id":607,"date":"2025-05-22T10:13:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T02:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.secondspringph.com\/?p=607"},"modified":"2025-05-22T10:14:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T02:14:33","slug":"waiting-room-wisdom-when-stillness-speaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.secondspringph.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/22\/waiting-room-wisdom-when-stillness-speaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiting Room Wisdom:\u00a0 When Stillness Speaks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They told me to drink a full bottle of water an hour before my session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


\u201cWe need your bladder full,\u201d the nurse said gently, as if that were a normal thing to ask someone first thing in the morning with the room’s fluorescent lights still feeling too harsh for my sleepy eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, there I was\u2014sitting in a beige-on-beige waiting room, legs crossed like a tightly folded napkin, bladder at capacity, trying to look composed while internally negotiating with every pelvic muscle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was my first day of radiotherapy. I had my neatly printed schedule, I followed instructions, I drank the water. But what no one told me was this: hospital time runs on a different dimension. They say, \u201cJust ten more minutes,\u201d but what they mean is, \u201cPlease begin praying to your pelvic floor now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my previous life, I\u2019d be spending this time in a Monday morning meeting, my jaw tight as I reviewed a weekly volume spreadsheet 50 columns wide or tweaking deck slides until my eyes blurred. Now, my target was not peeing myself in public<\/em>. Progress takes many forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What struck me most in that waiting room\u2014aside from the increasingly urgent need for a bathroom\u2014was the stillness. The air hung heavy with the scent of antiseptic and quiet anxiety, a stark contrast to the treadmill nature of my former reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I\u2019d spent decades on the move. Career. Travel. Bucket Lists. Always doing, planning, solving. I wore my full calendar with back-to-back meetings like a badge of honor. Stillness was for people who had given up. Or worse, people with nothing to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But life, as it tends to do, had other plans. (If you want God to laugh, tell Him about yours.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That morning, as I sat there full of water and questions, I realized: the pause isn’t a punishment. It’s a portal. Much like the full bladder necessary for a clear scan, sometimes life fills us uncomfortably to our limits\u2014not to torture us, but to create the clarity needed for what comes next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a world obsessed with movement, sometimes the bravest act is to still \u2013 even when every instinct tells you to run (in my case, to the nearest bathroom<\/em>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t give enough credit to the pause. In our world, action gets the spotlight. Hustle is glorified. Busy is a status symbol. But there\u2019s wisdom in waiting\u2014if we let it speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here’s what I learned during those uncomfortable, humbling hours:<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Stillness isn\u2019t weakness. It\u2019s preparation.  It\u2019s perspective.  It\u2019s power\u2026 even if you\u2019re about to pee your pants.<\/em>  This insight became my companion through the treatments.  When I felt impatient, anxious or even bored, I\u2019d remind myself:  \u201cI\u2019m not waiting, I\u2019m preparing.<\/em>\u201d  I would stop focusing on the clock and instead breathe<\/em> to bring me back to this moment \u2013 the only one that truly required my attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re in a waiting room of your own right now\u2014not necessarily in a hospital, but in life, in transition, in a \u2018holding period\u2019 \u2014know that this stillness isn\u2019t empty.  It\u2019s pregnant with possibility.  You\u2019re not stuck. You are instead being recalibrated and readied.  Your story isn\u2019t paused: this is part of it.  And though it may not feel like it now, this in-between chapter has wisdom to offer that the busy ones never could \u2013 waiting patiently for you to notice it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if you can and if you\u2019re allowed to, do go to the bathroom first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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