Great Expectations

Nobody works for charity, it’s said. We do things because we want something in return. Or to put it differently we expect something in return. Of course not many would admit it. Expecting things of people, events and circumstances is ingrained in us. And this is where we sow the seeds of letting ourselves down. Time and again. Primarily because those are OUR expectations from things outside of us. The people we deal with might not even be aware of the same. But we keep building upon it and are exhilarated when things fall into our scheme of things and are hurt big time when they don’t. This becomes our benchmark for judging people. Those who always live up to our expectations of them are hailed as the best things that happened to us and for those who missed the bus, a lot of ridicule awaits. It can be argued that when we do your best, people should take notice of us and reward us. When we go out of the way to help people, they should be nice to us when we need them. But the world doesn’t always work that way. Sadly so! You win some, you loose some.

An unexpected call from a friend we had long been waiting to talk to, an unexpected act of kindness by a total stranger, an unexpected turn of events for the better is truly exalting. What increases the joy manifold is that if it happened great, and if it didn’t, well, we’d still be ok. At times, like it’s famously said, the joy is in the giving without expecting anything in return. And that’s a selfish act too! Heck! There’s just this one life. Live it up, drink it down :-)