What You’re Most Expecting Doesn’t Happen Until You’re Least Expecting It
I was so certain I’d have those cowgirl boots under the Christmas tree that year. After all, I’d wanted them really badly last year, I’d made that clear to Santa and my parents and whomever else might have been listening, and they hadn’t appeared. So I’d been extra special good the whole next year, and I was expecting to see those boots as soon as I got to the tree on that snowy 1960s Christmas morning.
The snow was unexpected. For that, my younger siblings and I were grateful. Waking up to snow and Christmas morning brought us shivers of excitement we couldn’t have imagined. We hesitated before sneaking down the stairs, watching a quiet pre-dawn world emerge coated in clean white drifts as it slowly caught light, well aware we were forbidden to approach the tree before daylight.
The Tree. Rarely has such expectation been bestowed upon one single symbol of Christmas abundance. What would be under the tree? How many gifts would there be, how would they be wrapped, would they be large or small, what significance would size impart? How would they sound when shaken? How long could we bear to linger over our imaginings before ripping into them wildly?
My expectation was so certain to be fulfilled. This would be the year of my cowgirl boots, and no doubt, an entire Annie Oakley cowgirl outfit would accompany them.
Expectations: a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future. Translation: Trouble.
Expectations get me in trouble every single time.
I think a part of my childish brain realized that when the cowgirl boots didn’t appear. But it took my adult heart to understand that expectations—especially holiday expectations—can be so disappointing.
The holidays are the time when our expectations peak—and lead us to see all things magically bathed in goodness, abundance and cheer. We imagine a picture-perfect holiday meal, as painted by Norman Rockwell and rounded out by Hallmark TV, and we’re suddenly getting along swimmingly with family members we dreaded seeing all year long. We see ourselves in aprons, baking scratch-made cookies loaded with fragrant sugary scents, with our family waiting excitedly, jockeying for the piping-hot cookies as we pull them from the oven. The gifts we’ve so carefully chosen are exclaimed over, appreciated, beloved.
Having no expectations opens the world up to surprising goodness and unexpected treats. TWEET THIS
And maybe some of us actually achieve these (fairly unrealistic) expectations. But for those who feel like Sylvia Plath did, when she famously wrote that “If you expect nothing from anybody, you’re never disappointed,” there’s another way I’ve found to enjoy the holidays: Having no expectations. Enjoying myself in the moment, looking neither forward or back.
Having no expectations opens the world up to surprising goodness and unexpected treats. But having unrealistic expectations, as a rule, leads to:
- keen disappointment in outcomes
- annoyance at the unexpected
- feeble attempts to control situations
- angering others with our controlling habits
- plotting and planning
- absolute certainty our loved ones know what we want
- imagining (wrongly) others’ actions and responses
- magical thinking that we’ll be recognized as heroic geniuses
- irritation when we’re not
And having unrealistic expectations, especially at the holidays, leads to big disappointment, surely. But it also leads to an inward anger that others didn’t seem to appreciate what we were offering. Or that what we really wanted wasn’t acknowledged by anyone. So that must mean no one really cares about us. And who needs that, so bah, humbug.
It took me a few decades, after that Christmas of big expectations and even bigger disappointment, to realize that letting go of how I expected things to go would lead to some extremely cool things happening—things that I could never have dreamed up. Mostly they revolved around how I felt when I stopped worrying about what I expected to happen, and started focusing on what might be wonderful to experience if only . . . If only I stopped expecting what to experience. If only this, if only that, can’t exist without expectations, and sets up a predetermined experience with no joy arising from what’s completely unexpected.
And it took me until 2005 for those cowgirl boots to arrive. I’d given up my childish expectations long before. That’s the way it works with expectations—what you’re most expecting doesn’t happen until you’re least expecting it. A check arrived I hadn’t expected. A little bonus from my parents’ estate, though it had long ago been settled. It was just the right amount to buy myself my very first set of cowgirl boots. Santa was looking out for me after all those years. When I least expected it. ♣
I got a grip on my expectations much later in life, and I share them HERE. I hope that all of your dreams come true this season.
Got any special things you’re looking for under the tree?
Related articles
- Hat Tip to a Timely Daily Prompt: Out of Your Reach (dailypost.wordpress.com)
- Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (goodreads.com)
- Updated from my original article that appeared here on December 13, 2013
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Thanks for sharing this timely lesson.
Glad you appreciated it, Allan. Hope your every expectation is met this season. 🙂
Thoughtful post & I’m glad you finally got the boots!
Good of you to say so, Ariel. As you may have noticed from the photo in the post, eventually I got quite a few. That’s what Texas does to you.
Such an easy saying,“If you expect nothing from anybody, you’re never disappointed.” But we need our lessons, too. 😉
It’s a constant struggle. But worthwhile for me. Of course, easier said than done! Thanks for commenting.
Hope this season brings much joy for you, Jann.
I could relate to what was written here because as a child even I learnt that expectations from others leads to disappointments. So it is better not to expect anything from anyone and best to do something on our own.
And to you too, Norma! The challenge is to realize that expectations belong to us, not those we’re expecting something from. Which is a mantra I use to remind myself, often. Appreciate hearing from you, as always.
I got boots and the whole outfit when I was about seven. The only way I know is because I have a picture…I don’t remember any of it. So,as kids, we may get what we expected, but not remember it for long. Better we should get our dream as an adult. I love your boots!
What a great way to look at it! Sage advice. Would love to see your photo. Thanks for sharing that. 😀
Your thoughtful story of childhood Christmas expectations reminds me of a similar incident for me, when one Christmas I intensely wanted a board game called “Top Gear” and was so disappointed that I didn’t get it. I later found out that my parents did not know I wanted the game. (And I, in all Christmas innocence, had not shown any interest in the game–I was a timid and withdrawn boy.) I guess that was my “magical thinking.”
Jann, your observations about how expectations are “trouble” are very true, and you are very wise to pay attention to whatever blessings come through what *is* rather than being disappointed by what “should” happen (but doesn’t).
If you are interested, you can click on my name at the top of this comment to go to my (new) blog. I’m a marriage and family therapist, and the top article there is about coping strategies for the holidays (though they work the rest of the year, too).
May all of you reading this be nourished by someone or something that you touch and feel deeply connected to.
Wow! Can I ever relate to both sides of this post. Expectation is actually masked control issues I believe. My kids posted a note on my fridge one year that read:
If you want peace in your life, resign as general manager of the universe. I did and I do!
Thanks for the reminder. Merry Chrustmas!
You’ve got some seriously intuitive kids. Of course, look who raised them! Yes indeed on the control thing. After all, we need to own up to whose expectations they are–our own! So glad this struck a chord, Anita, and thanks for your feedback. I’m pretty sure you’ll get what you want–or maybe what you need. Eventually.
I’m pleased you got the boots eventually. Everything else you wrote was so interesting too. I know what you mean about expectations but I do like that shiver of excitement that comes with anticipation. Great blogpost – thankyou.
So nice to hear that, Cathy, thank you. The shiver of anticipation is wonderful, I’ll admit. I just don’t like to get too attached to it. Are you old enough to remember that great Heinz ketchup spot with Carly Simon’s ‘Anticipation’ overdub? I can’t ever hear the word without the song.
I’m certainly old enough to have seen the ad. but don’t re-call ever seeing it. Found it on Youtube. Maybe not shown in UK? That much ketchup ought to make you sick really. Have a good day. 🙂