Hurry Up & Wait

So much of life here lately is happening on what I call "Hurry Up & Wait" time. Patience is not my greatest virtue, and sometimes I wonder if I was blessed with any amount at all. When I step back, and look at my whole life from a distance, it's easy to see that this inconsistent timing is always in play. We are always hurrying, always rushing, always planning and plotting, and then we almost always have to WAIT for everything to fall into place. The control we have over these situations is minimal at best, and mostly imaginary, in my opinion. But that doesn't stop us from trying.

Since May I've gone from status: job, to status: no job, to status: an almost overwhelming amount of wedding work all in a few short months. Of course, the months I sat around waiting for stuff to happen didn't seem short, but they were in retrospect. It's been amazing for me to watch the small bud of an idea I had a couple of years ago, finally begin to bloom overnight. What is sad to me now, is that I didn't have complete faith in myself until I saw actual, tangible proof: proof that this is what I'm supposed to be doing right now. I managed to wait, despite trying to hurry everything along, and now things have started falling into place.

This blog is mostly personal, but occasionally I like to talk about what I do for a living. For newcomers, that is planning weddings. A few years ago, I showed up at a friend's wedding as the designated "house party." This wedding had been planned pretty much perfectly, and I would expect nothing less of the Bride - she is one of my oldest and dearest friends, and a fellow type-A personality. (I mean that in the BEST way possible.) When this house partier arrived, my one duty suddenly and voluntarily turned in to many. I'm not claiming I saved the day, this wedding would have happened no matter what, but I saw a need and I dove right in. The DJ had questions about cues, the groomsmen were still working on their entrance, the caterer wanted to move this table from here to there. And after scrambling from one place to another, running messages from this party to that party, I claimed my seat - out of breath - and ready for everything to begin. My husband and good friend sharing my pew were staring at me. 

"This should be your job."

Those were the words, that started it all. As I sat there and watched two special people commit their lives to one another, I realized that my abhorrence of weddings was fading away. Weddings can be delightful. They are full of heightened emotion, big personalities, touching moments, and the best people watching ever. Weddings are an awful lot of Hurry Up & Wait, too. From a coordinating perspective, you're pulling hundreds of people and vendors and details all together for one momentous day. It's all about timing. It's all about knowing when to hurry and rush, and when to be patient and wait. And without fail, things will usually happen - one way or another - no matter how meticulously you plan them. So you have to be willing to accept change.

The lesson here for me is that I need to remind myself that in periods of "Hurry," there will always be periods of "Wait" just around the corner. I will have a chance to catch my breath, rest my feet, close my computer, before I need to "Hurry Up" again.

All things that are good shall be accomplished in time and style.