Whistle While You Wait

After much thought and much procrastination, I introduce to you *drumroll* Whistle While You Wait!

For a long time I have been meaning to make a blog.  The only reason it took so long to get around to it was that I didn't have a good name.  I wanted it to be creative and I wanted it to say a bit about my life.

Well, over the past few days I have really been feeling the pressure to create a blog.  A few of my friends introduced their blogs on Facebook and there was an article in the newspaper about creating your personal brand.  So, I finally got fed up with putting it off and this morning I got down to the grind trying to come up with a name.

Well, I started out with a fervent prayer (they always help) and then started looking through quotes by some of my favorite authors for inspiration.  First, of course, was Tolkien.  Next was Chesterton, then came C.S. Lewis. After I found that quotes don't make good blog names, I read some articles about starting a blog.  One said that your blog should be about something that you could write on everyday, something that is very close to your heart.  That article is what led to the name.

I have always planned that one of my first blog posts would be about how my life right now is waiting.  It seems that almost everything I do is in anticipation of something else.  I realized that this running theme in my life would make an excellent blog topic.  The actual name "Whistle While You Wait" came out of the blue, definitely an inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

This is how I recognized the theme of waiting in my life.  A few weeks after I started college, I noticed something.  I was feeling a bit listless in a way I don't remember feeling in high school.  After some thought, I realized that it was because in high school I had a definite goal-to get good grades and good scholarships and get into college.  In college, I had not (and still have not) found a definite point that I am headed for.  I am waiting.  And I am not just waiting for the right major.  I am waiting for a career idea.  I am eagerly waiting for four (or six, or heaven forbid, eight) years to be up so I can start my life.  I am waiting until the right time to move out.  I am waiting for my call to a vocation.  I wear a "True Love Waits" ring on my left ring finger.  Heck, my job is waiting tables.  In so many ways, I am waiting for God to point me in the right direction.

And the name "Whistle While You Wait" is not just meant as a catchy phrase to point to this theme.  Lately I have noticed that I do a good amount of idle whistling.  Usually it is not even a specific tune, it's just whatever notes emerge from my head.  For a while I wondered why I had taken up the habit.  Then I realized that I usually do it while I wait.  Sometimes I do it because I am in an uncomfortable situation and I want it to be over.  Sometimes I do it because I am in a good mood and I am feeling musical.  Sometimes I do it just because.

But Whistle While You Wait goes even deeper than that.  It means that while I may not enjoy the wait, I will take it in stride anyway.  Snow White never said that whistling makes the chores any easier.  She whistles while she works because it makes her cheerful and it passes the time.  I realize that right now in my life God is calling me to wait, to spend this down time in my life to grow closer to Him and to get ready for my future while I am still unhitched and career-free.  And while I do not enjoy the waiting, I am going to make the best of it.

I am going to Whistle While I Wait.