Stop Waiting

Or... From Deserving to Creating: How Action Transforms Reality

Photo by Ümit Bulut on Unsplash

“To have what you have never had, you have to do what you have never done.”

Roy T. Bennett

It's hard to understand how much the world
Will give you what you really want
When you stop waiting, in the deep

Error of believing that the true
Prize is owed to you by right,
That the cosmos is your debtor.

The world is not written
To recognize the merits
Of those who remain afflicted

In waiting. The most expert
Know that life gives
Only to those who have open

Eyes, to those who don't sound
The lament of the "owed",
But who forgive

And act. Who has known
How to stop waiting for just
Recognition, who has muted

The cry of unjust
Destiny and has begun
To create his particular

Taste, who has dared
To give before receiving,
Discovers that he has found

The secret of living:
Don't wait for the world
To come serve you,

But be fruitful
Yourself with actions,
Be second

To none in intentions
To transform into reality
Your most dear visions.

Don't wait for
The friend to extend first
His hand: your

Initiative is the intimate
Motor of change,
Your first step

Toward that moment
When reality bends
To your movement.

Don't seek who denies
You forgiveness, but be you
Who loosens, who unties

The knots. No more
Waiting for the perfect partner:
Become you

The love you respect,
The quality you seek,
The gift you expect.

No need to seek
Excuses to postpone
Action: the most serene

Know how to begin
Even without enthusiasm,
Know how to transform

The smallest spasm
Of will into movement,
The weakest ghost

Of intention into moment
Of concrete action.
This is the argument

That the universe interprets:
Not empty words,
Not secret waiting

For someone to shake themselves
For you, but your own
Moving the wheels

Of life. It is precisely
When you stop complaining
And begin to appropriate

Your destiny, to create
With your hands what
You want to see, to dare

The first beautiful step
Toward what you desire,
That the world, under that

Impulse, yields to your
Will. Not because
The God is your

Servant, but because
Action has in itself the power
To change what is

Into what must be.
The universe responds
To those who know how to move

Their own deep
Energies, to those who don't wait
For someone to correspond

But who set themselves
In motion by themselves,
Who have promised themselves

Not to stay still anymore
In the limbo of waiting,
In the pale screen

Of suspended life.
Everything depends on you,
On your descent

Into the kingdom where
Action commands,
Where reality

Expands
According to the movement
Of those who ask

Not for pity, but moment
After moment build
Their monument

Of life, who translate
Into act every thought,
Who lead

Themselves on the path
Where every step creates
The truest world.

Watch how reality will open
Before those who will know
How to be among the saints

Of action, among those
Who no longer stand weeping
In the vain labor

Of waiting, but who have
Become themselves
The change, the gift

They sought in the world
And that now they are.