Expectations

Now I admit that this is very hard to put into practice:

It is important to expect nothing,
To take every experience,
Including the negative ones,
As merely steps on the path,
And to proceed.

-- Ram Dass

It was in 1990 and I was preparing to make a trip to the city that had been my home for many years (having only moved away the previous year). I was very, very excited about the upcoming vacation and found myself fantasizing about how wonderful it would be. I visualized visits with all the people I cared about and just what those occasions would be like. Suddenly it hit me how I was idealizing my expectations and truly setting myself up for disappointment. And so I decided to make my only objective that of getting there and getting back. That, I told myself, would make it a successful trip and anything else would be icing on the cake.

As it happened, I had a truly wonderful time. But that wonderful time was different from my earlier fantasy. If I had not let go of the expectations I had been cultivating I don't think I would have experienced my visit "home" as wonderful at all.