Week 3.27: Great Expectations

Week 3.27: Great Expectations is a blog I've been mulling for some time...at least a month. And, if I'm being honest, maybe the last nine-ish years. It's one of those underlying themes and ideas that really permeates the world. Sometimes it's a faint aroma and sometimes it a heavy perfume.

Great Expectations come in all sorts of packages. Big and small. Seemingly inconsequential. Ripe with meaning. Loud. And quiet. Soft. And harsh.

When you boil it all down to the bare essence, it comes down to this: Life is nothing like we expected it to be. Ever. For anyone.

It's your attitude, your heart, your pluck that show Great Expectations what you really think of them.

Here's a list of things people have Great Expectations about:

Lifestyle =
Health =
Love =
Children =
Parents =
Friends =
Dating =
Church/Faith/Religion =
Politics =
Sex =
Money =
Marriage =
Spouses =
Graduation/Degrees =
Careers =
The Corner Office =
"The Usual" Coffee Order =
Siblings =
Downtime =
Vacation =
Travel =
Books Made Into Movies =
Style =
Seasons =
Life Changes =
Parenting =
Freedom =
Women =
Men =
Americans =

You get the picture, I'm sure. After every one of those you can fill in the equation as to what your Great Expectation is. Or what you know the people around you see the Great Expectation as.

But what if we're going about it all wrong?

Because if we're all being honest, a sense of dissatisfaction is growing on our globe at an alarming rate. We've never been so consumed. And yet, things have never been so disposable. We are being consumed by consumption. I would dare to say we are being crushed by our own Great Expectations.

Now. Let me explain why I chose this photo. It's a picture of the lamb biryani I made with my husband last week. A-mazing. It was amazing for several reasons. One, my reputation until recently has been that of a non-cook. Two, as it turns out, I love to cook (and I'm not half bad)! Three, we worked together as a team. This was not an entry level recipe. At one point I had two chopping mats out and four burners going on the stove. It took over two hours to prep, assemble and cook this meal. (I think my mother just fell off her chair...can someone who lives in town go check on her?)

My husband told me this week that the best surprise he's had since he married me is what a wonderful cook I am. Nice. Well, to be honest, when you have a 6'7" man with a hollow left leg and two growing children staring at you, you learn to cook in a hurry. Otherwise, I think we all might've starved, but I digress.

And then there is the cilantro. Which, as some might tell you, was a sworn enemy of mine in my earlier years. I hated it. I thought it stunk. Zero affinity. Well, time marched on (as it always does) and while I lived in California, I realized how great it tasted on Mexican food. And during the time I lived in Hawaii, I realized how chinese parsley (as it is called there) tastes great in asian dishes...and in freshly made salsa and salad mixes from the farmer's market. And then when I lived in Fiji and I was learning the names of pretty much everything, I was eating my fish in lolo (coconut milk) with dalo (taro) and there, staring up at me from my bowl, was dhania. Cilantro. Where I was least expecting it. No expectation. I think that was the night of my life cilantro tasted the very best. When I wasn't expecting it.

So what if we were looking at life as "When I was least expecting it..."? Or, as I read in a magazine this week, what if we changed our attitudes of entitlement and expectation to anticipation?

What if we changed up the equation completely? Erased the list. What if we did this:
Great Expectation = Anticipation

I'm not saying we should expect things to fail. I'm saying that we shouldn't be so full of Great Expectations that nothing actually satisfies. I'm asking what if we looked at every day as a blessing? As every part of life as an adventure? What if change and uncertainty became our friends? How about the kid with the messy face? The messy room? The messy desk? The messy life?

What if I looked at those things with anticipation?

Maybe anticipation is the real Great Expectation.