Waiting Season

In this time and in this place, it’s a season of waiting. We wait, as we sit on trains and planes, to see the people we love. We tell our children to “wait and see” if a particular gift shows up under the tree. We wait for colleagues to stop talking and give us an out during a tedious holiday party conversation. We wait at checkouts, at the post office, and in traffic. We wait for the cardamom bread to rise, for the cookies to cool, and for the curtain to open on a beloved holiday tradition. We wait for the darkest day of the year to finally end and for light to start winning again.

But everyone knows there are two different kinds of waiting. There’s also waiting with fear and dread: The long pause before the doctor tells you your test result. The diminishing hope one feels with day after day of waiting for something that doesn’t come. Excruciating waiting that makes you wish you could stop time before it gets worse.

 The authors of The First Winter are no strangers to either kind of waiting, but they dwell in the good as much as they can. Najma Abdulkadir writes, “I’m far away. I went to Ethiopia to complete my sponsorship to the United States. Alhamduliah, it went well, and we waited for two years. We were alone there, just me and my three siblings.” Nadifo Abdi remembers her long journey to the United States: “I went to the airport with my mom, my six siblings, and six huge bags. It was the longest two days of my life, in an airplane or waiting for an airplane.” None of the authors were sure what was waiting for them in America, but they were promised it would be better than what they had.

There can be joy in waiting—and not just the joy that comes at the end. Even if it’s thirteen thousand miles or several years away, our authors tell us, we can hold what matters close: pray for it, write about it, plan for it, celebrate it, take a step toward it. These are dark times, in every sense, yet this is the season when we drive out the darkness with hope, faith, love, and light. 

Two Shrews wish you and your loved ones the brightest blessings, now and always. 

With much love,

Liz + Steph