How Does True Love Wait? Let Me Count the Ways

After our visit to the zoo, we drove out to Beluga point to wait for the tide to come in. I hoped to see a Beluga, but ended up seeing birds and Dall sheep instead. I also took one of my favorite photos of Pedro from the entire trip.

They say that true love waits. While this held true before our marriage, I have discovered that waiting holds a different, yet equally important part in a relationship after the wedding.

The word ‘wait’ has several meanings. It can mean to delay, to or serve. A waiting person ‘looks forward expectantly,’ but a waiting person also serves your meals. For some, the word implies ‘readiness,’ for others, ‘to remain temporarily neglected or unrealized.’

I think you could find the word ‘wait’ used in all of the above ways in any given marriage. In our early years, I spent a lot of time waiting for Pedro whilst he rode his motorcycle or went windsurfing. I usually had our daughters in tow, and I didn’t always wait graciously.

We have waited on each other in times of sickness and health. We have waited for the other’s temper to cool during tense conversations. We have waited for our children at numerous gymnastic practices, volleyball games, soccer meets and basketball games.

Healing takes time, and we have learned to wait on each other during those times. At times the need to wait has caused agony, at others the wait has produced joy. Indeed, we have discovered that true love waits.

The Last Wait of Our Adventure

And so on the last day of our Alaskan adventure, my true love waited. After seeking belugas in vain, we returned toward Anchorage. We saw Dall sheep high in the cliffs beside the road and pulled over to watch them. I rushed off with my camera and binoculars.

Twenty minutes later, the memory card on my camera had filled, so I returned to the truck. Pedro had disappeared. I followed a trail across some railroad tracks and discovered him high on an outcropping of rocks, waiting for me.

We spent another forty minutes watching lambs and ewes clamber along the cliffs across from us. Waiting to see if they would approach the road or stay at higher altitudes. When the wind started to chill us, we hiked back to the truck and drove to another ‘birdy nerdy’ spot.

Pedro waited once more whilst I looked for birds. When I discovered salmon swimming upstream, I texted him and let him know. One can’t leave Alaska without seeing salmon swim upstream, after all!

We drove back to Anchorage and spent a quiet evening together. Our four weeks had come to an end—a beautiful adventure and reprieve from our (mostly his) busy lives.

He had taught me everything I needed to know to successfully drive a truck and trailer back home alone. I knew how to use a torque wrench and a generator. Hitching a trailer and installing the sway bars seemed like a piece of cake. I could back the trailer up, empty and fill the tanks, and keep everything properly greased.

The Adventure Continues

I felt equipped to handle the second part of my summer adventure—driving back to Arizona by myself. I knew I would miss him, but I also know that all of our waiting over the years has forged a bond that two weeks’ absence cannot crack.

When we are 90, we will still adventure out together—if only to the mailbox at the end of the lane. He with his walker, and I with my cane, we will arrive and open the box than shuffle back together. Yes, indeed, true love waits—with patience and grace, forgiveness and humility.

Waiting is always a choice.

Beauty Tip #31: Waiting is a choice, and true love waits.

Q4U: Have you struggled with waiting in your life?