Many people suffer from this disease and it can be quite debilitating and while not necessarily life threatening, it can interfere with a person’s quality of life, affect personal relationships, careers and even one’s hopes and dreams.
Waidle (sometimes known as Wait-till) can start early in childhood and one expresses thoughts of “Waidle I’m in school” or “Waidle I can ride a bike”. Mostly, however, the disease is not prevalent in young children as they have a way of enjoying the moment. It usually manifests in adolescence and becomes more serious in young adulthood.
For me the disease was fairly dormant until I was a young adult. Many of my friends showed symptoms with comments like “Wait till I’m married” or “wait till I’m out of school.” My symptoms appeared in early marriage. It was waidle we move into our new place, waidle we get out of the military, waidle we have real jobs, waidle we have children, waidle we have more money. Waidle, waidle, waidle. Before I knew it I was thirty, then forty.
Now, I’m not sure when I conquered this disease. Perhaps it is only dormant. It is a now and then thing such as waidle vacation or waidle the big check comes in.
The most unfortunate result of this disease is that you often miss the good stuff. When I look back at my life from this vantage points and think of the best times I realize that I was unaware that I was going through the best times. I think about living at the beach and going to law school. One would think that in my fifties I was well beyond waidle. But I was thinking how my life would be different after I was a lawyer. Now I see those as my halcyon days. Life was good. I didn’t have money but life was good.
Another area this disease affected me was in that I didn’t travel and have adventures. That would always be in some future life. “Waidle I have more money, more time, more companionship”. For me I think the disease went into remission when I finally started having some adventures. I went to China as my first trip alone. It was part of a tour group from my hometown so it wasn’t a bunch of strangers.
As I was anticipating my 70th birthday I knew I had to conquer the waidle disease. I signed up of a two-week trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in a wooden dory. Now it would be strangers but I wouldn’t be alone. I think that trip was the first step in overcoming waidle. I came back with a strong desire to overcome this debilitating disease that had taken so much of my life.
I still get outbreaks every now and then. I’m still waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect timing but then I remember that in my seventies I really don’t have much waidle left.
What are you doing to overcome the scourge of the waidle disease?
My ex-husband suffered from this malady. I try to take whatever preventative measures I can to avoid catching this at all costs. 😉
Oh, I love this! I have periods of waiting until and then, ones of surging ahead. Seems like a cyclical thing for me. Thanks for bring a great perspective to it!
Karin – this is timely as I have two little boys and am trying to figure out the balance as I go. Thank you for your wisdom and reminder of what really matters!
This is so true. Even while I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do, I find myself leaning toward waiting until my book is published to be happy. I struggle to be in the moment and enjoy what’s happening right now. What I great post!
You are seriously amusing. I came to the same conclusion during my bout with breast cancer more than a decade ago. I vowed to accept whatever invitations came my way and to work hard on achieving some of the goals that had been under the “Waidle” category. As a result, I’ve been to Kenya, China, Costa Rica, and had some very enjoyable times just by saying, “Yes, I’d love to.” It’s too bad we do the waidle for so much of our lives, but at least we eventually recognized our error and corrected.