EXPECTATIONS

I read a wonderful line in Conversations With God the other night:

"To live your life without expectation - without the need for specific results - THAT is freedom." - Neale Donald Walsch

I was so blown away when I read that, that I probably read it about 10 more times. Such a thought hardly occurred to me until that evening; such a simple idea that can affect the way we deal with everything that happens to and around us. We all grew up around expectations; expectations from our families to grow up to lead successful lives, expectations from our friends to be loyal and trustworthy, expectations from teachers and bosses to be greater thinkers and individuals. But what most often seems hardest to live up to are the expectations we have of ourselves.

We undergo so much aggravation when we can't live up to what we expect of ourselves; the amount of responsibility that we try to carry, the load of feelings we attempt to handle without aid - so much to deal with but so often not realized until we've spent all the energy and emotions we had.

And then there are those expectations we have of certain situations in our lives. We've been taught to "hope for the best, but expect the worse." No wonder we live in such a cynical world! Why not just hope for the best and expect...nothing? I've learned these last few weeks that the only way I can get through anything is to trust myself to handle whatever will happen; not so much bet all my hopes that "good" (whatever that entails) will prevail, but trust that no matter what cards I am dealt, I will strategize as best as I can for the hand I've been given (I think I've been watching too much Celebrity Poker!).

Expectations of any kind are no prize. All they do is often force us to see the shiny gold trophy at the end of the race and not much else; not the people cheering on the side (the supporters - our family and friends), not the view of the ocean we run past so quickly we don't notice how blue the water is (the experience), and not the accomplishment we attain even if we come in less than 1st place (the lessons we learn).

So NOT expecting is the key to peace and freedom...hmmm, who knew? Now I gotta go study for my midterm so I won't have to expect to fail this class. Happy Monday to one and all!

+ Rest In Peace, Superman...