It took me quite a while to realize this truth: having expectations brings about a lot of suffering. We humans expect events to go a certain way. We invest in our expectations as if they were actual currency.  We expect results to align with our own well-being: people must respond correctly;  results must reflect our efforts and intentions; our loved ones may not disappoint us. Life makes mincemeat of our expectations. That mincemeat can become our personal soil for inner growth if we allow it.

Nowadays I strive to exchange expectation for curiousity, for a let’s-wait-and-see-attitude that leaves me open to outcomes I never could have imagined. That’s the goal, anyway. Doesn’t mean life won’t whack me again. It will. Or that I won’t rail and protest. I will, albeit for less time and with less self-righteous enthusiasm. In the pauses and cadences between whatever fresh hell  awaits ’round the corner, I can truly live in the present. I loosen my grip on expectation’s reins and simply enjoy the ride.

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