Waiting. Are you good at it or bad at it? You might be waiting for something to happen or waiting and wishing for something to stop happening. You might be waiting for a few days or for years. You might even be waiting for something without knowing whether it would ever happen.
What I mean here by waiting is not about waiting for someone who is late for the appointment. What I mean is to wait for something you wish to present itself. The most painful wait would be for some news relating to life or death or for something you know wouldn't happen but long for it to happen.
Then, what about forgetting? Would that be easier? But then somewhere in our heart (or mind) there's a thing called hope. Forgetting is just like ditching your hope together with your wish.
What I mean by forgetting is not about forgetting someone's name or can't remember what someone said. What I mean is here to actively and intentionally try to wipe something out of your head because it aches. It might be an easier option, after all, as waiting breeds hope and subsequent fear of disappointment.
Both waiting and forgetting are (or must be) something you choose to do. To choose not to wait for something is to forget about it. To choose to forget about something is to abandon your hope. Tough choice...
Is that all the choice you have? Not really. There are, I think, two more options - to have faith and to feel the now. To have faith is an optimistic and yet very brave choice. A coward like myself does the other - to focus your attention on what's going on now.
Whether I'm waiting for something to happen or not I make a conscious effort not to think about the past or the future. I fail in this effort most of the time, but I take it as an on-going training. I try to feel and smell the soap in my hands, to check the texture and taste of the food I eat, to figure out the expressions and to read the other person's heart, or to listen to my breathing when I'm lying down in the darkness.
Now, affogato! It's not a recipe, really. You just pour steaming hot espresso onto ice cold ice cream. It's the other way round in my 'recipe', i.e. plonk a ball of vanilla ice cream into a cup of espresso. You could change the 'ingredients' if you like - chocolate ice cream, Bailey's, and espresso mixture or hot chocolate and some berry ice cream combo :)