Waiting

Serene I fold my arms and wait,

Nor care for wind, or tide, or sea:

I rave no more 'gainst time or fate,

For lo! my own shall come to me.

* * *

I stay my haste, I make delays,

For what avails this eager pace?

I stand amid eternal ways,

And what is mine shall know my face.

* * *

Asleep, awake, by night or day,

The friends I seek are seeking me;

No wind can drive my bark astray,

Nor change the tide of destiny.

* * *

What matter if I stand alone?

I wait with joy the coming years;

My heart shall reap where it has sown,

And garner up its fruit of tears.

* * *

The waters know their own, and draw

The brook that springs in yonder height;

So flows the good with equal law

Unto the soul of pure delight.

* * *

The floweret nodding in the wind

Is ready plighted to the bee;

And, maiden, why that look unkind?

For lo! thy lover seeketh thee.

* * *

The stars come nightly to the sky;

The tidal wave unto the sea;

Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high

Can keep my own away from me.

John Burroughs,

"The Best-Loved Poems of the American People" Doubleday 1936

* * *

As we are waiting for our new children, it is comforting to know that God will bring our own to us. He is in complete control, choosing where, when, and how.

* * *

"The LORD is my shepherd: I shall not want." Psalm 23:1