Wait Without Hope by T.S. Eliot

Wait Without Hope

By: T.S. Eliot

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,
The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.

T. S. Eliot, East Coker

Today in my Pierre Favre class I talked about learning to wait, to be patient, that it is okay not to figure it out, not to have the answer. That is something I learned. A classmate said it reminded her of a line in this poem.

But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.