“El que espera, desespera

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• Meaning

There are times when we are anxiously waiting for something to happen. However, the more we wait, the less it happens. Finally, when you decide not to care at all, it occurs.

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• Origin

Let us picture ourselves watching a pot which is on the stove because we want to enjoy a delicious coffee. We are there, anxiously waiting for the water to boil, but it seems that water is taking forever to get hot enough for us to brew that delicious coffee we are yearning for. The moral of this idiom is that if we want things to happen, we have to relax, keep our lives going and things will come to us when they have to, not when we want them to. Stress and rush are not good advisors.

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• Example  

My students are watching me write this idiom while they are waiting for me to continue with their class. I feel their eyes stabbing on my back as if with their sight they could speed me up to finish son. I just gently turn around and tell them, “A watched pot never boils!”

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