Day 152 - Don't Worry, Be Happy

mow green

Suddenly, if feels like Summer...

Not least as I'm out mowing in the sunshine, which is warm, sweaty work!  It was my turn to mow the verge outside our property - the neighbour and I do it alternately.   

At this time of year, it grows so fast it needs doing twice a week...so for the next few weeks, I'll have to mow our internal lawns twice per week, and these verges once...it took an hour and a half to do the verge this evening...

Anyway, I imagine you may have noticed a sudden decline in the quality of my photo's...sorry about that.   Anna has taken the new DSLR to the States, so I'm limited to my phone, generally.  

I used to think that the phone took bloody brilliant pictures, but now it seems just a little bit pants...that's what expectations can do - make you less happy with things we were previously happy with. 

Best not to have expectations...many a relationship has broken own due to failed expectations.  If we don't have those expectations in the first place, they can't be failed on, and so we won't feel let down.

If you must have expectations, make them good ones...

• I expect that I will be mostly happy in my life...
• I expect Anna will remain as lovely as she was when first I met her...
• I expect Kim will be the same bright, beautiful woman as she was when a girl...
• I expect all of our animals will make me smile every day...
• I expect that sunshine and physical work will make me feel better...
• I expect that everything will turn out alright...

I carry these few expectations around me, and try to retain a mindset that generally approaches the world from this sort of perspective.   

And they are all consistently supported by the observation that they all keep turning out as expected!

On the other hand, combine high expectations with low self worth, and you have a recipe for a disastrous relationship!

"I expect you to remain faithful to me, yet I because I am worthless, I expect you will be unfaithful to me..."

There's just no potential positive outcome of that kind of explosive compound of bad thinking and internal conflict. 

So try to keep your expectations positive and realistic.  Try not to get bogged down with demands for certain things to happen...instead, simply hope and assume that everyone will be ok, regardless of what happens.   

This is virtually guaranteed to come to pass - it pretty much always does...as evidenced by the fact that we're all still here, and all still more or less alright.

And because of your more realistic expectations, you are satisfied that they've been met, rather than being disappointed that they haven't. 

There's a possible contradiction between all of that, and the earlier post I linked to above, but I can live with that...  

I'm an evolving being - I change from time to time! 

Anyway, it sounds kinda glib (although I don't believe it is), but it all it boils down (once again), to:

Choose happiness.

:-)