When we look at young children who have not yet had too much heavy socialization or trauma happen to them we can easily see curiosity, openness, and willingness to engage as intrinsic to their being. They naturally want to find things out, to play, to feel and be with whatever is around them. I believe that this is inherently human. We are meant to live daily in an open expectation without a goal in mind.
Haven’t we noticed that in the company of kids we get to touch that feeling again? We remember to be in the flow of life, trusting without knowing, delighting without grasping, receiving without demanding. In other words free. What could be better?
Phrases posted on Facebook, February 2016
Here’s a little practice. Morning . . . feet hit the floor. The day has begun. Let the heart open wide and, before anything, accept that somewhere in the ensuing hours something good and right will take place. Dressed in gratitude and having no specifics in mind makes for more living room.
Night practice: Eyes closed remember not only the good that happened in the day but the difficult as well. Without efforts at correction, direction or demands, allow a greater wisdom to make a whole of it. So much of good can happen during sleep.
Looking hard enough at our expectations we will probably find that we have some negative ones. It never works out for me. They always chose someone else etc. Our favorites are so habitual that we don’t even see that we’ve cast a negative barrier between life and us. Just knowing and naming our negative expectations will begin to help us change them.
If we have had a negative expectation for a long time it is much harder to expel. It seems to creep into the cells of the body as a kind of stored memory app. We have to do something physical to help release it. Allowing our bodies to shake a full minute a day with a conviction that we are shedding something unwanted helps a great deal. It is what animals do when they’ve been trapped and frightened and before they get going again.
Surely we have all seen signs on the highway saying Expect Delays. RoadWork Ahead. The inner world sometimes has roadwork ahead in order for us to be able to move on in our lives. Delays are times for regrouping, reimagining and resting. When things are thus it’s good to remain open in our expectations.
Anticipation almost always has specifics in mind, an event pleasant or dreaded, a particular outcome or passionate hope. In other words anticipation is hooked to a something. Expectation without a goal in mind invites possibility. It doesn’t dash our dreams. It keeps us flexible and open for Spirit to work in us and through us for the highest good.
In Homeopathy like is treated with a little bit of like for healing. There is also the expression to take a thorn out with a thorn. Why could we not abandon our enslavement to our fixed expectations by having an expectation without a goal in mind?
Living in an open expectation without a goal in mind is like having a spacious light- filled welcome center in our hearts.
Much of the good that we do not expect comes to us because we have no urgency or demand around it. We’ve rolled out the welcome mat. And because we have not spelled out specifics we often receive something better than what we thought we needed.
I think you would agree that there is a firm connection between attention and open-ended expectation. When we really pay attention we cannot skip lightly over the countless things that sustain us daily, gifts freely given (air, water, trees etc.) and the constant every day kindnesses from others. We could be on our knees in gratitude all day. Get kneepads!!
I believe I share this at least once a year. It comes from a beloved friend who wanted to pass her motherly advice on to her son. She said, “Be in constant awe (I read in expectation without a goal in mind) and try to be helpful.” Thank you again dear friend.
Why not thank ahead – that is, taking little breath stops where we can give thanks for something not yet experienced? That is living with an expectation without a goal in mind. It helps us receive and make real the daily flow of goodness all around us beneath the numbing blare of the media’s negative urgency.
In the end isn’t living in an expectation without a goal in mind all about trust and not about planning?
