All tagged expectations
Ho, Ho, Ho! The countdown is on. Plans are being made to spend time with family and friends because Hanukkah and Christmas are great reasons to gather. Especially since we had a couple holiday seasons under the Covid regime, I think many of us cannot wait to be within six feet of each other and without masks on this year. ‘Tis the season.
Last week, when we were on a trip, there was an opportunity for my daughter to choose a family member she would share a hotel room with. She chose her brother. After the initial shock, I was quite pleased that my children were getting along so well. Until I heard my daughter say, “If I stay with mom, it will be one lecture after another.” Ouch!
I am often asked if we’re supposed to write a thank you card when we receive a thank you gift. In other words, do we say thank you for the thank you? It would seem like a continuous cycle of thanking each other if that was the case. But I think the question is valid. Let’s dive into it together.
Well this national day is going to be tough to write about since I don’t know anything about thank you notes. Kidding!! Are we talking about the national day designated every year for Thank You Notes and is celebrated the day after Christmas? If so, that is right up my alley. Although I was tempted to write a post giving High-Fives to those who already write thank you notes or to guilt people into writing them if they don’t, this post is about neither. Instead, I’m writing about this national day for those who are so overly grateful that the task to write thank you notes is overwhelming. And I’m not talking about overwhelming because it’s another “To Do” item added to an already full list.
I am about to admit something very unthoughtful. Up until a week ago, I would judge family members when they would ask me what they should get my kids for their birthdays or Christmas. I have been very narrow-minded in thinking that they didn’t know my kids well enough to have their own gift ideas for them and I felt resentful that they had to ask for help. I felt like they were taking the easy way out; wanting me to give them the answers to the test. I considered this “cheating”. Boy was I dumb for thinking that way!
By the time I went to Oprah’s 2020 Vision event in St. Paul, I had been meditating for at least 5 minutes a day for 10 days in row because that is my 365 (366 for Leap Year) for 2020. I often heard that the benefits of mediation were immediate but I wasn’t expecting it to be truly… immediate. The Oprah event exceeded all of my expectations because: 1. I didn’t have any expectations except to see her live on stage and 2. meditating cleared up some junk just in time to see this show. My mind was so open that it soaked up every morsel of wisdom that Oprah had to offer.
