Expectations

Expectations--


A rainy afternoon.   Winter is announcing her arrival with cooler days and nights.  Snow can't be far behind.  All to be expected.

Expected.  An interesting word.  We live our lives with expectations.  Some we realize.  Others become distant dreams or wishes.  Living with expectations gives our life purpose.  Expecting a great concert means we are hyped up and ready to experience a good time.  Expecting a baby brings with it the promise of the future.  We plan, purchase, talk about this coming event.  We expect others to share in our joy.  Graduating from school whether it be college or a trade continues our expectation for earning a living wage.  Young people expect to make the team after hours and hours of practice.  The list continues.

Somewhere along life's continuim we expect to grow old.  We desire to live our life fully until the last breath.  We exercise, eat the right foods, keep positive thoughts at the front of our minds.  We engage in meaningful relationships with those we enjoy.  We develop hobbies that provide our minds and bodies with much needed things to do.  Our wish is to be vibrant until the last minute of our lives.  Growing old is not a bad thing.  In fact, it can be the most meaningful time of life.  Unless it is cut short by disease or accident.  Or by others wishing harm.

Wishing harm.  It can happen in relationships.  Families, friends, partners, husbands, wives have the ability to cause great harm to one another.  Could it be that the "I" in all relationships takes center stage thus allowing very little room for others?  Most plays engage multiple characters in dramas that work around one or two challenges.  The challenge is introduced.  We then have the opportunity to watch as the actors work through the problems in search of a solution.  Compromise is almost always part of the equation.  Not everyone gets everything.  Hopefully, everyone receives enough to continue.  And the play ends.  The stage grows dark.

Wishing harm cuts much deeper than this.  In our world wishing harm seems to be a way of life for some.  This is playing itself out on a national stage.  We are drawn into the pain and suffering of others in distant lands.  Those we do not know personally.  Yet, we do know them.  We are part of them.  We expect to go to work, to return home, to greet and be greeted by those we love and who love us.  We expect to visit over a coffee with friends perhaps discussing coming events or holiday plans. We expect to wake up to a new day.  Just like they did.  When violence rips these expectations out from under us, we are left wondering how we got to this place.

I struggle with this.

However, amid the destruction of lives comes a new day.  A day like no other, to be sure.  We cannot avoid that new day.  It has to be faced and walked through.  Lives are forever changed.  Beliefs shift.  Tolerance and acceptance become issues that tear at our deepest self.  We know what we never dreamed we would know.  Violence has showed its ugly head.  Nothing is the same.

Because of these events, new expectations arise.  We walk forward understanding that peace is not a dream.  It is an expectation.  We can be assured that one day nations will grasp the fact that we are so much richer and better when we learn tolerance toward one another.  That our differences need not end in conflict.  That we can come together in small groups and communities to talk about who we are. And  we can listen to others.  No one has the absolute corner on everything.  By spending time in conversation we open ourselves to greater understanding.  We also give others the opportunity to understand us.

Expectations.  They propel us forward toward what we view as worthy.  May we always live with her guiding us on our journey.