Over time I have met mothers who were about to go on maternity, I have met people who had to take time off work briefly because of their health, I have met people who had extra days’ holiday and didn’t know what to do with them (okay this might not be limbo but keep reading on). I’ve met people who lost their jobs and had some time to either find another job or take their time, I’ve met people waiting for a resolution to commence working again because their permit ran out, I’ve met people who were forced to be temps or take on short contracts because they couldn’t get any full-time work. I met people who took a gap year to decide what they wanted to study or what they wanted to do next, some went travelling while some stayed at home. Seriously, I can go on…
So, what do you see that’s common in the examples I give above? Free time, yes! Free time, whether it’s weeks at a time or months at a time. What were they all doing? Most of them were complaining while the ladies on maternity and the people finishing their holidays doing nothing were excited to get time off and then they ask me, “How do you get to juggle all the things you’re doing?” Now concentrate because I’ve learnt all this through some hard lessons.
I see limbo as an incubation process. Incubation processes can also occur while you’re working but I see these moments that life/universe gives you as time to learn. Yes, like being inside an egg until you hatch, like being in the womb of mother earth until you synthesise what you’ve learnt in that time. Learning can be mental, through the experience or through actually learning something or simply processing something after something has happened or is about to happen. So, see, you are not in limbo you are focusing on the wrong thing if you think you’re in limbo.
Now, I hope this article gets to you in time. Why? So that you can save yourself time and grief in so many things.
- Mother’s I know you’re excited not to work but think a few steps ahead after the baby comes. You will be dying to get free time to do your hobbies, meet your friends, have some space and money. If you’re a housewife permanently then there’s even greater opportunity. You just gotta ask yourself, “How many people get to be pregnant and have a break? But how many people actually use this to get ahead with experimenting i.e. perhaps finally get a chance to try their own small start-up company, or catch up on the things they have on their bucket list that doesn’t need them to be mobile or active all the time?” Life is short, make use of every second you have so that you don’t live in regret.
- Those excited to go on holiday but don’t have enough money and have to stay at home or have to finish up their extra holidays. Yes, take a break and get up when you want. You will still have enough time. How do you think I got to sharpen my skills at writing? I used this time to write my book i.e. The South African: True Colours. See not a lot of money just your computer and electricity. Perhaps you want to learn something arty or fancy doing something that you can teach yourself using the internet.
There are so many things you can do, perhaps learn how to meditate or do yoga or go to the gym. Limbo is something you choose the fact that you got to be in “limbo” is a gift that you decide how you’re going to use. Maybe the “limbo” has given you time to rest after working so hard. Life’s way of taking care of you when you won’t listen to your intuition, gut feeling or something you’ve been putting off for ages. This is divine intervention.
You’re either meant to process something in some way during this time or even make the most of it to or gain some knowledge. Then you synthesise that knowledge but it’s up to you if you want to be a greater you. Sitting there brooding and complaining is a lot of time wasted. Shift the mind to ask yourself, “Okay, this situation has messed up my plan but let’s see there’s this, this, this and that I still want to do. I can always come back to this. Maybe, this isn’t the time. When the time is right it will happen but for now, this is what it is.”
Getting into “limbo” might have well just saved you from something you don’t even know.
T. Dench Patel
Thank you for the comments and support. Thank you for offering to donate if there was a donate button on here. I prefer not to take donations. You can support by either purchasing one of my books (Paperback or Kindle), The South African: True Colours, The South African: Roamer or my children’s book Light. These books can be found on Amazon mainly and other sites in your country.
The audiobook for The South African: True Colours is available on iTunes, Apple and Audible. The South African: Roamer and Light will be released soon.
Note: Do keep referring back to this site as much as possible, as I grow, a more profound perspective may form and so I will always come back to each of these articles to reevaluate them.
