The Joke of Patient Waiting

Nasreddin's humor often emerges from situations that seem absurd on the surface but contain unexpected grace. Birdwatching demands hours of waiting, and the ego rebels against this—surely I should be doing something productive. Nasreddin would laugh at this rebellion. The joke, he'd suggest, is that waiting *is* the doing. When you sit motionless at dawn expecting cardinals and instead watch a beetle navigate a leaf for twenty minutes, you're not wasting time—you're participating in the cosmic comedy of attention. The birds aren't arriving to serve your agenda; you've arrived to serve theirs. This shift from grim patience to joyful absurdity changes everything. You stop waiting *for* birds and start noticing that you're already among them, already part of the show.