Postcard on Waiting

When will you live?

Photo Credit: Pinterest

We love to talk about waiting as if it’s just a season—a phase we’ll soon come out of. But the truth is, life itself is one long, unending wait.

From the moment we’re born, the cycle begins. We wait to grow teeth, to crawl, to take our first steps. We wait to speak, to run, to be old enough for school.

We wait for admission into a higher institution, and if you’re Nigerian, you wait to serve a country you complain about nonstop.

Then we wait to get a job. To get married. To have children. We wait for those children to grow. We wait to retire.

And in all this waiting, if we’re not careful, we forget to actually live.

Who said we need to have every detail figured out before we start embracing life? Who decided that being rough around the edges and confused as heck disqualifies us from enjoying the messy, beautiful chaos of being human?

Darling, stop waiting to live. The days will pass anyway, and one morning, you might wake up and realize all you ever did was wait. How tragic.

I recently came across an Instagram comment that moved me deeply:

“I have waited my entire life. I now suffer from a weird kind of grief.” — Patty Rhodes Brown

What a heavy, unbearable grief—to wake up in the evening of your life and realize that even though the end may be near, you never really lived.

“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.” — Mark Twain

“Many people die with their music still in them. Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

“Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand.” — Napoleon Hill

So, I say this with urgency:

Go make the music. Write the story. Sing the song. Quit the job you don’t like. Draw something. Cook something. Run at dawn with nothing but your will beside you. Do the things that make your heart move. Live!

The best kind of people are those who live as if every day is their last. Those who empty themselves of potentials with an urgency that only the truly alive can understand. Be one of them. Because procrastination isn’t an act of hope. It’s an act of pride. It’s believing you’re so special that tomorrow will always be waiting for you.

But you’re not more special than the countless souls who have been pulled to the other side, their dreams still trapped inside them, never making it beyond the quiet café of their hearts.

My prayer for you this week is simple: stop waiting to live. May you find the courage to step into each day with open hands, knowing that life is not waiting for you. It’s happening right now. May fear never silence your dreams, and when doubt whispers not yet, may you boldly answer, why not now?

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” — Psalm 90:12

With loads and loads of love,

Odinakachi Nwonu 💚