Expectations

I have expectations. Lots of them. A lot of the time. And I’m sad when they aren’t met. Some of my expectations have to do with  people not behaving like I had hoped they would and I still haven’t learned not to be disappointed. This morning I mentioned to my husband that I was thinking about unmet expectations. He immediately jumped in and said, “Like that Christmas morning when I didn’t get the little gas-powered plane I wanted.” He doesn’t pride himself on a great memory but I guess that one stuck with him! That wasn’t exactly the kind of expectation I was thinking of but I remembered when one of our grandsons was about a year and a half old and we were eating breakfast out. The kids menu had a photo of a meal with the food arranged to look like a face on the plate. When his meal came, it didn’t look like the picture and he burst into tears. In this case, I was thinking more along the lines of personal growth. I’ve had conversations about this with one of my granddaughters who struggles with expectations too, although she’s already got a better handle on dealing with those than I do. Years ago a friend told me he always expects the worst because when things turn out better, he’s happy. Not me. I love anticipating events and I like having hope. I’m just trying to learn to put the brakes on expectations. One of our sons said maybe, instead of not having expectations, I could work on how to deal with disappointment when things don’t go as I planned or when I feel that people have let me down. I like that. But sometimes when plans go awry things turn out well. One day last week my husband needed a prescription and our nearby drugstore didn’t have it. In fact, the only place to get it was Walgreens in downtown Seattle. I had had my day planned but I made a last minute switcheroo and decided to go down there with him. Parking in downtown Seattle is a nightmare and we got on the light rail, got the Rx and then hung out at Pike Place for fish and chips, met some interesting people from San Antonio and got to say “Go Spurs!” (not that we helped their team) and stopped in the Seattle Art Museum before we got on the Link to head home. It was way better than the day I had planned for myself. My husband likes to say in a sage-like manner that to plan ahead is to plan twice and in this case, he was right. I like the statement in the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. “Everything will be all right in the end. If it’s not all right, it is not yet the end.”

Photo courtesy of debannja at Pixabay.com